NCP dares SPLM to prove claims of vote rigging in South Kordofan
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April 4, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Rhetoric flared up on Wednesday between
north and South Sudan as the latter accused the former of attempting
to rig elections in the country’s central state of South Kordofan.
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South Kordofan’s governor and NCP’s frontrunner in gubernatorial
elections Ahmad Harun (FILE)
Polls in gubernatorial and legislative elections of South Kordofan
State closed on Wednesday after two days of voting.
No incidents of violence were reported during the hotly-contested
vote, which was postponed from April 201o as Sudan held nationwide
elections due to disagreements over census results and delimitation of
geographical constituencies.
The results of the elections are due to be announced on 10 May amid a
climate of suspense due to the sensitivity of the vote and its future
implications for the relations between north and south Sudan, which is
due to secede in July.
The National elections Commission (NEC), which oversees the exercise,
said that 80 percent of the eligible voters had cast their ballots on
the first day.
Vote-counting was supposed to proceed immediately after the polls
closed, but the north Sudan sector of Sudan People’s Liberation
Movement (SPLM), which controls south Sudan, on Wednesday said it
objects to the beginning of counting.
The SPLM said in a press release that the ruling National Congress
Party (NCP) in north Sudan had a three-phase plan to rig the
elections.
It claimed that its members had found three rigged ballot boxes in the
areas of Kadugli, Buram and Al-Quzair.
On Tuesday, the SPLM claimed that three ballot boxes were seized in
the area of Um-Battah in the state’s Kadugli town. It also said that
one polling station was relocated from the police club to Al-Merikh in
Al-Bananusa in the geographical constituency number 7 without prior
notice.
Meanwhile, the NCP’s incumbent candidate in gubernatorial elections,
Ahmad Haroun, responded with a press conference in which he challenged
the SPLM to substantiate its claims against his party.
Haroun, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on
charges of war crimes allegedly committed in the country’s western
region of Darfur, said that the SPLM should refrain from
“badly-directed theatrical plays.”
The two frontrunners in the state’s gubernatorial elections are Ahmad
Haroun and the SPLM’s Abdul Aziz Al-Hilu. The latter recently
announced his intention to form an all inclusive government should he
win the vote.
Ahmad Haroun followed suit yesterday, announcing that he would form a
national government which includes all political forces if he won the
vote.
The run-up to South Kordofan elections was mired in tension after the
paramilitary Popular Defense Forces (PDF) attacked El-Feid village in
mid-April, leaving 17 people dead and hundreds of houses destroyed.
The SPLM accused Ahmad Haroun of instigating the PDF attack with the
intent of scuttling the elections. The SPLM also accused the NCP of
violating the elections law by using state-resources to support the
campaign. of its candidate
Sudan’s April 2010 general elections, which re-elected the NCP in the
north and the SPLM in the south, was marred by opposition boycotts and
reports of mass fraud.
(ST)
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