Sudan’s first multi-party elections in two decades went into a second day yesterday after a chaotic start which saw southern former rebels crying foul and electoral officials acknowledging “mistakes.”
Lines — one for men, one for women — formed in stifling heat at voting stations in central Khartoum before polling began at 8am, as cars arrived bringing even more voters.
On Sunday’s first day of voting, many polling stations opened late as officials awaited delivery of ballot papers or received the wrong material, angering voters and in some case sparking scuffles, witnesses said.
However, police yesterday said there had been no reports of major violence linked to the ballot in Africa’s largest country.
The avalanche of complaints linked to voting procedures compounded question marks about the credibility of an election from which key candidates had already withdrawn ahead of polling day citing fraud.
The three-day polling process had always threatened to be difficult with voters, many of them illiterate, having to contend with ballots for simultaneous presidential, parliamentary, state and southern regional elections.
But the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), the southern former rebels, described the first day of polling as “wasted” because of a raft of procedural problems and demanded the vote be extended from three to seven days.
“There have been a lot of irregularities that we have noticed,” said Samson Kwaje, campaign manager for SPLM leader Salva Kiir, at the end of Sunday’s balloting.
“Today was a wasted day. We are seriously sending a protest to the [National Election Commission, NEC],” he said.
Kwaje said the irregularities included polling stations opening late, wrong ballot boxes in the wrong places and ballot boxes going missing.
The NEC acknowledged there had been “mistakes” in distributing ballot papers in some areas but made no comment on the possibility of prolonging the election.
It said the process was going well “except some technical mistakes about the distribution of ballots in 26 centers in Khartoum state.”
“In White Nile state, there has been a problem matching the symbols with the candidates,” it said.
In the southern regional capital Juba, voters said they struggled with no fewer than 12 ballot papers.
The SPLM had already pulled out its presidential candidate Yasser Arman, while former Sudanese prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi of the northern opposition Umma party also withdrew.
The opposition parties accused the National Congress Party of veteran Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who seized power in an Islamist-backed coup in 1989, of plotting to fake an election victory, particularly after the contract for ballot papers went to a state-owned printer.
Bashir, who shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) after casting his ballot at the St Francis school in central Khartoum on Sunday, has promised an “exemplary” election.
In Juba, the southern former rebel leader said he was voting for the first time in his life and hoped the elections would lead to the “formation of a democratic process in south Sudan.”
Kiir is standing for election as president of the autonomous government in south Sudan that will lead the region to a promised referendum on independence next January.
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