From: Tsegai Emmanuel (emmanuelt40@gmail.com)
Date: Fri Apr 02 2010 - 18:58:29 EST
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/africa/jan-june10/sudan_04-02.html#
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*Africa <http://www.pbs.org/newshour/region/africa/index.html>*
Updated: April 2, 2010, 5:30 p.m. ET
Sudan Heads Toward Historic But Shaky Vote As Sudan prepares for its first
multi-party elections in 24 years on April 11, opposition candidates have
started peeling away and other challenges in the country are raising
concerns about the milestone vote.
[image: Election workers in the city of Juba in southern Sudan. Photo
Credit: Larisa Epatko]
*Election workers in the city of Juba in southern Sudan. Photo Credit:
Larisa Epatko*
*BY LARISA EPATKO*
Sudan's first multi-party presidential and parliamentary elections in 24
years are set for April 11, but with just days to go, the main opposition
presidential candidate has withdrawn from the race, throwing the legitimacy
of the election into question.
The elections are mandated under the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement,
which ended two decades of civil war between the primarily Muslim and
Arab-speaking north and rebels in the south. Another requirement of the CPA
is a referendum in January 2011 in which the south will decide whether to
split from the north.
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But this month, when voters go to the polls from April 11-13, they will
*Key opposition candidate drops presidential run*
On Wednesday, one of the main challengers to President Omar al-Bashir --
The formerly southern rebel SPLM, now in a coalition government with Bashir,
U.S. Sudan envoy Scott Gration flew to Khartoum the day after Arman's
"We're troubled by any decision that reduces the competitiveness and
Some opposition leaders have called for a four-week delay in the elections,
"It would not be fair to postpone the election," although the government
"We hope there will be no postponement of the referendum for that is one of
Current President Bashir came to power in a military coup in 1989, and was
Bashir faces charges by the International Criminal
In January, Bashir retired as commander-in-chief of the armed forces,
A candidate must receive 50 percent of the vote to avoid a run-off with the
*Elections hold promise, concerns for Sudanese*
Many Sudanese will be voting for the first time in the elections, including
"I just want, really, this election to happen to choose a leader who will
Khamis Cosmas Lokudu, 25, a student and volunteer with the Rule of Law
Officials who get voted out of office might cause trouble as well, he said.
An election without signs of major fraud will go a long way toward
International monitors will help oversee voting at polling sites around the
One of the U.S.-based organizations heading to Sudan, the Carter Center, is
"This is a very important election in that it represents a potential
*Sudan confronts voting challenges*
Because voting is new, Sudanese civil society organizations have mobilized
Although voter registration in November and December was largely peaceful,
Polling stations are being consolidated, so where people registered to vote
Also, rumors are circulating that parties might be paying for votes, said
Henry, the Yei resident, said she has heard those rumors.
"I'm feeling a bit afraid because it's like most of the people will be just
Intervening when there are rumors is beyond the jurisdiction of the domestic
"We have experienced in Kenya how rumors promote violence," Yakani
Another challenge is to organize the participation of many Sudanese who have
Other hurdles include ensuring enough voting materials are available, said
Despite the potential problems and risk of violence, Lokudu from Juba said
*Editor's Note: This report is part of a PBS NewsHour collaboration with the
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decide on the president of Sudan, National Assembly, president of the
semi-autonomous Government of Southern Sudan, Southern Sudan Legislative
Assembly and governors and assemblies for Sudan's 25 states.
Yassir Arman, a northern Muslim who joined the Sudan People's Liberation
Movement -- announced he was dropping out of the race.
alleges that Bashir's National Congress Party is rigging the elections in
its favor, which the government denies. The SPLM also says ongoing security
problems in the Darfur region of western Sudan are preventing their
candidates from participating in elections there.
withdrawal to meet with opposition leaders and members of the government.
And Reuters has reported that other opposition parties, including the
Democratic Unionist Party and Umma party, have said they also are
withdrawing from the presidential race and possibly other contests for
parliament and governorships as well.
credibility of these elections, but the situation is very fluid, and Scott
Gration is there and actively trying to determine more details about the
decision by these opposition parties," said Assistant Secretary of State
Philip J. Crowley at a press briefing on Thursday.
which the government in Khartoum opposes.
would abide by the recommendation of the National Electoral Commission, said
Sudan's Ambassador to the U.S. Akec Khoc in a recent interview. "If the
election is delayed until November, it would not give sufficient time for
the preparations for the referendum," now scheduled for January, he said.
the factors that could lead to conflict, violence," Khoc said. "Elections
are meant to democratically transform a country through having a
multi-party, all-inclusive process. This is what we are trying to do in
Sudan."
elected president as the only candidate to run by law in 1996 and then
re-elected in 2000 in a contest that the opposition boycotted. Under the
2005 peace accord between the Khartoum government and rebels in the south,
led by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army, he was named president
again.
Court<http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/africa/july-dec09/icc_09-08.html>over
alleged war crimes in Darfur, where fighting between rebels and
government-aligned militias have killed an estimated 200,000 and displaced
at least 2.5 million since 2003. Bashir has dismissed the
ICC<http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/africa/july-dec09/bashir_08-13.html>as
a political rather than judicial court, and has said the number of
those
killed in Darfur is more like 10,000.
according to state-run media, in a procedural move ahead of his official
nomination by the majority National Congress Party.
second-place finisher.
Sunday Roseline Henry, a 31-year-old resident of Yei in southern Sudan, who
said she is excited but tentative about the vote.
speak on behalf of the people and come back to the villages, not just sit in
their office in Parliament," she said.
Promoters Association in Association in Juba, said he also is looking
forward to his first election but is concerned that violence might break out
after the vote. "Here, it is going to be a problem, because the losers don't
accept the results."
"It's like the office is like a kingdom" that they don't want to give up.
preventing violence, Sudanese and regional analysts have said.
country. The European Union is sending 130 observers to Sudan. Other
organizations and countries, including the African Union, Arab League,
Intergovernmental Authority on Development in Eastern Africa, and China and
Japan, are planning to deploy monitors, in addition to Sudan's own election
observers.
planning to dispatch a team of monitors that will be smaller than the EU's
though the exact number hasn't yet been determined, David Carroll, director
of the center's Democracy Program, said on Friday.
transformation for Sudan in terms of the prospects for a political opening
and the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, including --
following these national elections -- a referendum in January 2011," he
said.
to help people understand how to register and vote in the complex elections:
in the north, voters will have eight ballots and in the south voters will
have 12.
there was confusion among some communities over where constituency lines are
drawn and which candidates they are voting for, along with even where they
should vote, said Edmund Yakani, coordinator for the Sudanese Network for
Democratic Elections.
might not be where they cast their ballots in April, he explained.
Yakani. In other words, people would hand over their receipts allowing them
to vote to other parties, who are looking to reduce the number of votes for
their competitors.
convinced because of money," she said. "Those who are campaigning who have
money, they will win."
election monitors, said Yakani, so his organization has been urging
political parties to deploy their own agents to see if the rumors that other
parties are buying voters' receipts are true. Then, the parties should
report their concrete evidence to the National Electoral Commission, which
has the responsibility to uphold the code of conduct among the parties, he
said.
continued. "So the parties need to be responsible to ensure that elections
are under a peaceful situation so at the end of the day they don't
jeopardize the lives of the citizens."
been displaced by the decades of fighting in the south or in the western
region of Darfur. Residents of the south have been trickling back home since
the Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed in 2005, but scores of Darfur
residents are still living in refugee camps.
Yakani, and the country's low literacy rate, which is 61 percent among the
total population, according to the CIA World Factbook.
he feels a sense of national pride during this voting period. "I am happy
since this is my country," he said.
**Pulitzer Center on Crisis
Reporting*<http://www.pulitzercenter.org/showproject.cfm?id=152>
* covering the national elections and 2011 referendum on southern Sudan
secession.*
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