From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Wed Apr 14 2010 - 08:55:23 EDT
Sudan ruling party offers opposition govt posts
Wed Apr 14, 2010 10:23am GMT
KHARTOUM, April 14 (Reuters) - Sudan's ruling party, in an apparent bid to
heal a rift over accusations of vote fraud, said on Wednesday it would
invite opposition groups to join the government if it won elections
currently in progress.
Sudan is four days into presidential and legislative polls aimed at helping
to bring the oil-producing state back to democracy more than two decades
after a military-led coup.
The poll's credibility was cast in doubt after some main opposition parties
decided to boycott large parts of the poll, accusing incumbent president
Omar Hassan al-Bashir and his northern National Congress Party (NCP) of
widespread rigging.
"If we are declared winners in the elections ... we would extend the
invitation to all parties, even those who have not participated in the
elections, to join the government because we believe this is a critical
moment in our history," senior NCP official Ghazi Salaheddin told reporters.
"We are facing important decisions like self-determination in the south and
would like to garner as much support and as much consensus as we can."
The elections were set up under a 2005 peace accord that ended more than two
decades of north-south civil war and also promised a referendum on whether
the south should secede in January 2011.
The decision by south Sudan's dominant Sudan People's Liberation Movement
(SPLM) to boycott the vote and most polls in northern Sudan had raised fears
of unrest in the build up to next year's referendum.
No one from the SPLM or other boycotting groups, including the opposition
Umma party, was immediately available to comment on Salaheddin's offer.
(Reporting by Andrew Heavens; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
C Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved
Sudan mulls limited re-runs over election errors
Wed Apr 14, 2010 9:23am GMT
* Re-runs considered in small number of constituencies
* Technical errors and accusations of fraud widespread
KHARTOUM, April 14 (Reuters) - Sudanese election officials on Wednesday said
they were considering re-running ballots in a very few constituencies to
correct errors in voting forms, as the troubled poll entered its fourth day.
Sudan's first competitive presidential, legislative and gubernatorial
elections in 24 years have already been hit by wide accusations of fraud and
procedural mistakes.
The poll, agreed under a 2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of
north-south civil war, was supposed to help bring the oil-producing state
back to democracy more than two decades after a military-led coup.
Following a series of boycotts by leading parties over accusations of fraud,
the ballot now looks likely to confirm the rule of the leader of that coup,
incumbent president Omar Hassan al-Bashir.
Bashir is facing charges from the International Criminal Court of
masterminding war crimes in the western Darfur region and analysts say he is
hoping to legitimise his rule through the poll.
Officials from Sudan's National Elections Commission told Reuters they were
considering suspending voting for seats in national and state assemblies in
some states after discovering they had printed the wrong party symbols next
to some candidates' names on ballot papers.
"Logos have been swapped in a very limited number of constituencies," said
commission deputy chairman Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah.
"According to the law it (the commission) can cancel elections and hold them
again within 60 days. That is one of the options we are considering."
Other commission members and international observers told Reuters the
printing errors were thought to have affected ballots in 15 to 18 state and
national constituencies.
Voting has been taking place in 270 national constituencies and just under
700 state constituencies in African's largest state.
"There are ballots that are missing symbols, duplicate symbols, even missing
candidates on some forms, so that (a partial re-run) would be the logical
step to take," said one international source close to the elections.
Voting began on Sunday and was extended to last five days to allow more time
for voters and officials to deal with the elections' complexities.
Election monitors across Sudan said early voting had been affected by
missing ballot boxes, poor staff training and confusion over the location of
voting centres. (Reporting by Andrew Heavens; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
C Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved
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