Dispute over vote-counting delays results of South Kordofan polls
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May 10, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Vote-counting in gubernatorial and
legislative elections of Sudan’s central state of South Kordofan has
been marred by disputes, leading to postponement of polls results amid
heightened tension in the oil-producing region.
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Polling staff and local observers seal ballot boxes on the last day of
voting in South Kordofan State May 4, 2011 (REUTERS PICTURES)
A delegation of the Khartoum-based National Elections Commission
(NEC), which oversees the exercise, arrived in the state after
vote-counting was put on hold all day on Sunday following the refusal
of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) to increase the
number of vote-counting committees.
NEC’s deputy chairman, Abduallh Ahmad Abdullah, who led the
commission’s delegation to the town of Kadugli, announced that the
crisis had been defused after all sides agreed to form three
committees to review vote-counting.
Abudallh told reporters on Monday that NEC had realized that one
committee would not be able to finish the tabulation of votes at the
required speed, hence was the agreement to add two more committee to
accelerate the process. He added that he expects the work to be
finished within three or four days and afterwards the results would be
announced.
A source privy to the situation told Sudan Tribune that the three
committees would go through each result form from each of the polling
stations, adding that each of the three committees has a party agent
in it.
“These committees,” the source said, “have the power to make any
corrections to the forms if they are filled out wrong. Then they go to
the data center where they are added onto the central software and
tabulated.”
The competition for the office of state governor between south Sudan
ruling SPLM’s candidate, Abudl Aziz Adam al-Hilu, and the north Sudan
ruling National Congress Party’s incumbent governor, Ahmad Harun, is
at the heart of tension surrounding South Kordofan elections.
Even though the South will become an independent state officially in
July, the SPLM says it will retain a presence in the North through its
Northern sector.
Southern Kordofan, the site of oilfields and important civil war
battlegrounds on the undefined north-south border, is key to Khartoum
because it neighbors Darfur and the disputed oil-producing border
region of Abyei border, another possible flashpoint between both sides
in the build-up to the South’s secession.
The vote in South Kordofan, which was delayed from a year ago over a
census disagreement, was largely peaceful but analysts fear an
outbreak of violence when results are announced.
Both parties preempted the announcement of the results, each claiming
that its candidate has won.
Meanwhile, the NCP has warned the SPLM against playing bad losers
after the announcement of the results.
The NCP’s vice-president Nafi Ali Nafi told reporters in Khartoum on
Sunday that his party would not allow the SPLM to use its objections
to vote counting as a pretext to instigating chaos and insecurity
after the announcement of the results.
Nafi further reiterated his party’s offer to divide power with the
SPLM and other political parties at the executive level in order to
“maintain the unity of the domestic front.”
(ST)
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