South Kordofan polls authority says no way to review vote-counting
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May 11, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The National Election Commission (NEC),
which is organizing contentious elections in Sudan’s central state of
South Kordofan, on Wednesday declared that the vote aggregation
process has been finalized and there is no way to review it.
JPEG - 17 kb
Polling staff and local observers seal ballot boxes on the last day of
voting in South Kordofan State May 4, 2011 (Reuters Pictures)
The situation in the oil-producing state of South Kordofan, where
voting in long-delayed legislative and gubernatorial elections was
largely peaceful, reached a tense point on Wednesday after the north
Sudan sector of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), which
controls South Sudan, withdrew its agents from the committee handling
aggregation of vote results.
SPLM officials cited claims of spotting a “bogus” polling station
containing rigged ballot boxes in the absence of party agents and
observers, saying their party would not resume participation in the
committee unless NEC declares the said polling station null and void.
In a statement carried on Wednesday by Sudan’s official news agency
SUNA, the Khartoum-based NEC closed the door for demands to review the
results, saying that the process of vote counting, aggregation and
tabulation of preliminary results had been finalized at the all 555
polling sites. The statement further added that party agents and
candidates had signed the results in the presence of observers.
NEC said that the results had been delivered in sealed envelopes to
the state’s high-commission, adding that now there is no way to review
the results.
Meanwhile, the SPLM has responded to the offer put forward by its
rival National Congress Party (NCP), which rules north Sudan, to share
the state’s executive authority, saying it will not accept the deputy
governor position in exchange for accepting fraud.
The secretary-general of the SPLM’s northern-sector, Yasir Arman, said
in a press on Wednesday that the NCP’s offer to give the SPLM the
position of deputy governor is not acceptable to the SPLM. “The SPLM
will not accept rigging or seek war, but will rather engage in a
peaceful democratic activity and unyielding civil resistance,” Arman
said.
NCP official Nafi Ali Nafi on Tuesday said that his party was willing
to offer the SPLM a share in the state’s governorship, reiterating
claims that the NCP’s incumbent candidate Ahmad Harun, a man wanted by
the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Darfur region, won
the vote.
SPLM officials also preempted the announcement of the results,
declaring that their candidate for state governor, Abdul Aziz Adam
Al-Hilu, won the vote.
Meanwhile, the NCP has stressed it will not allow any quarter to
undermine security and stability in the state. NCP’s political
secretariat Al-Haj Adam Yusif accused the SPLM of playing bad losers
by boycotting vote-counting. “There is no point in boycotting it
[vote-counting]. It is known that if one side realized it is going to
lose the election, it will stir up troubles, this is not the first
time it happens,” Yusif said.
Yusif further asserted that the state apparatus is capable of
safeguarding citizens and asserting security at the time of results
announcement.
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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