SPLM pulls out of South Kordofan vote body as foreign observers urge calm
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May 10, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement
(SPLM) on Tuesday announced its withdrawal from the committee handling
aggregation of South Kordofan’s elections results, citing claims of
spotting a “bogus” polling site amid appeals for calm by foreign
observers.
JPEG - 20.8 kb
An international election observer from the Carter Center stands
outside a polling centre during the second voting day in Kadugli, in
Southern Kordofan May 3, 2011 (REUTERS PICTURES)
Results of South Kordofan’s gubernatorial and legislative election
were due to be announced on Tuesday, 10 May, but disagreements over
how many committees should handle results aggregation suspended
vote-counting. The deadlock was broken after a delegation from the
Khartoum-based National elections Commission (NEC), which oversees the
exercise, arrived in the state and brokered an agreement to assign
three committees comprising party agents and observers to review
results of all polling stations.
NEC officials said that the three committees would be able to finish
vote aggregation within three or four days after which the results
would be announced.
“These committees 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,” a source
privy to the situation told Sudan Tribune on Tuesday.
But the situation has been complicated again when the SPLM, which
controls the soon-to-be independent state of South Sudan but also
maintains a base in north Sudan, announced on Tuesday the withdrawal
of its representatives from the results-aggregation committees.
The SPLM’s spokesman in South Kordofan Mohamdeen Ibarhim told the
pro-government satellite TV channel Al-Shoroug TV that the SLM had
discovered “a bogus polling station” in Kaddam constituency at Laqawa
locality in the state’s western sector. Mohamdeen said that the center
was unknown to NEC and political forces. Moreover, he added, the
center had no party agents or observers. The SPLM’s spokesmen claimed
they had seized five filled ballot boxes at the polling center.
He added that the SPLM had asked for a probe into the “bogus center”
but the committee referred the matter to NEC which in turn responded
by saying it can’t cancel that particular station.
SPLM’s spokesman Mohamdain further accused the geographical
constituency official of creating an unknown center using an electoral
register belonging to the year 2010 and not 2011 as required.
The SPLM’s chairman in South Kordofan, Qamar Dalman, told reporters on
Tuesday the SPLM had decided to suspend participation in the process
of vote-aggregation until the arrival of NEC representatives or a
decision is made on the objections raised by the group.
In response, the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) in north Sudan
issued a press statement on Tuesday, accusing the SPLM of looking for
an excuse to scuttle the elections.
“SPLM’s behavior shows it is not interested in finishing the job and
unable to see any results that would not bring it to the seats of
power,” the NCP statement said.
The NCP further called on the SPLM to be “responsible and abandon the
childish mentality in political affairs.”
The party, whose candidate Ahmad Harun is contesting in gubernatorial
elections against the SPLM’s candidate Abudul Aziz Al-Hilu, called on
the committee to continue its work, saying it refuse to hold the
electoral process hostage to the will of one party.
Meanwhile, the only international mission monitoring the vote has
urged the contesting parties and their candidates to observe calm.
In a press release issued on Tuesday, the US-based Carter Center urged
“contesting parties and candidates to continue to observe the results
aggregation peacefully, to ask their supporters to remain calm and to
seek recourse to potential electoral disputes through established
legal channels.”
The Carter Center said that the vote-aggregation process was “being
closely watched by the agents of the contesting parties and candidates
and must be allowed to be completed before results are announced.”
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.
(ST)
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