Sudan’s electoral body approves requests from foreign election monitors: official

January 24, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s National Elections Commission (NEC) has revealed that it accepted requests submitted by several foreign bodies to monitor the upcoming general elections.

The pro-government Sudan Media Centre (SMC) website quoted the NEC’s secretary general, Jalal Mohamed Ahmed, as saying that it had received several requests to monitor the elections, including from the World Lake Conference (WLC), Election Network in the Arab Region (ENAR), Union of African Political Parties, as well as other institutions from Brazil, Russia and Nigeria.

He said the NEC had also informed international and African journalists unions, as well as all parliamentary unions, of the upcoming elections.

“We received a number of requests to monitor the elections from several parliamentary organisations,” he added.

He emphasised that the NEC is committed to holding free and fair elections which live up to the international standards.

Sudan Tribune recalls that the African Union had earlier decided to deploy an election observation mission to Sudan led by the former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obsanjo.

Sudan’s general elections are set to be held in April, but opposition parties are refusing to participate, saying the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) holds absolute control over power and refuses to make any compromise to end the civil war and improve public liberties.

However, the NCP rejects any postponement to the electoral process, saying it would create a constitutional vacuum and cause chaos in the country.

On Thursday, the NEC announced that nominations for the presidential and national assembly elections had now closed.

The electoral body said it had approved nine candidates for the presidency, saying more than 3,000 nominations had been registered for the elections.

(ST)