Posts Tagged Sudan Elections

Well, since I last wrote, a lot has happened in Sudan in regard to the elections.  Here are a few key items:

• It came out that ballots that were supposed to have been printed in South Africa to prevent duplication were in fact printed by the Sudanese government’s printing press, with duplicates (read: election fraud). Oof.

• It was suggested by a team of International Election Monitors that the elections by delayed due to:

1. Deficiencies in media freedom
2. Lack of education on the voting process for those in rural areas (i.e. most of Sudan’s population)
3. A drop in the number of available polling stations
   

   President Bashir speaks on his intent to keep the elections on track, while many throughout the globe wonder about the fairness of holding an election under an internationally indicted political figure.

(Read more here about, according to The Economist (one of my favorite and most trusted news sources), how the Sudanese government is “stacking the odds in its favour” for this election.)

• President Bashir responded to said Election Monitors by suggesting he would cut off the fingers of those who “interfere in [Sudan's] affairs.”  I’d like to think he was speaking metaphorically.
• Luis Moreno Ocampo, the now-famous prosecutor at the ICC, compared Bashir to Hitler, implying that monitoring an election under the rule of a leader indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity will be nearly impossible.

I was trying to keep my hopes up about these elections, praying that they would truly be free and fair.  However, after the past few weeks and the new, unfortunate developments that have occurred, I’m starting to worry.  According to the Sudan Tribune, many within Sudan are even pushing for the elections to be delayed until November, threatening to boycott them in April if not.  If both international consultants AND Sudanese citizens don’t think the country/National Electoral Commission is ready, then I too cast my vote to postpone them.

So, at the end of the day, those of us over on this side of the world who are not International Election Monitors or ICC Prosecutors can only do our best to learn, stay up to date, and pray for peace and justice in Sudan.  In fact, thanks to the folks here at His Voice, I discovered the Sudan Global Day of Prayer that Samaritan’s Purse (an organization my husband worked for that I fully endorse), is spreading the word about.  At the very least, I encourage you to view their daily list of prayer requests in Sudan and say a prayer for the elections, or whatever other events may take their place in the next few weeks.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, Grant Sudan Your Peace.

Well hello there.  As Vernon so kindly mentioned in the previous post, I’m Moe and I’ll be blogging here at His Voice a couple of times a month about Sudan-related topics and news.  I blog about this and many other [extremely random] topics on my personal blog, which I’d love for you to check out.

But enough about that, let’s get started.  Today’s topic: Elections! Oh my!  Sudan’s first general elections in 24 years are coming up next month, tentatively April 11-13, which are to be followed by the referendum on Southern Sudan’s secession next January.  I’ll probably be discussing these two events in my posts quite a bit, as they will inevitably have tremendous aspects on Sudanese society.

After several postponements over the past months, conflicts big and small, ongoing trouble in Darfur, and SPLM  threats to boycott the elections, it looks like these elections might actually be on track to take place, as outlined in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.  If they do, Sudan will elect a president and various parliamentary members, as well as elections for the Southern region, including President.  Sudan’s current President Omar Al-Bashir is up for re-election for the national presidency, as well as other candidates who you can read more about here.

Yasir Arman, the SPLM nominated candidate for the National Presidency

The latest event that leads me to believe these elections might actually happen occurred last week–BBC reported that the deadlock over parliamentary seats in Sudan had ended, with an agreeable result that the South will now have enough members of Parliament to veto any constitutional changes.  This power is necessary in order for them to ensure that the CPA remains in place.  According to the article, due to last year’s census (which in my opinion, and many others, was a major failure) the South did not have the population representation to have enough seats in parliament to hold this veto power.   But after months of deadlock, they came to an agreement.  Let’s hope that’s good news.

(The article also pointed out that more seats were awarded to Abyei and Kordofan, the areas which house my beloved Nuba Mountains–the area I visited in Sudan and where my husband lived.  I pray that this is good news for our friends there.)

Finally, one more interesting tidbit that I came across this week on Sudan’s national newspaper, the Sudan Tribune, was an op-ed titled “Why Southern Sudanese should vote for Al-Bashir“.  This is a bit of a shocking title for anyone familiar with the country’s history–Al-Bashir is currently wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity, and is potentially up for counts of genocide as well. He is largely known by Southern Sudanese as the mastermind of the violence that killed 2 million of their people and totally destroyed all of their land and belongings.  And yet, this op-ed claims that he is the only candidate that will fully recognize a potential Southern secession.  I find that hard to believe, but even so would not make me want to vote for him (but I’ll save that for a future post titled “Why I don’t think Southern Sudan should secede”).

So, that’s my bit for now.  Please pray for peace and safety in Sudan during this election season–it’s an extremely volatile and tense time and will determine much for Sudan’s future.

For information regarding Sudan’s upcoming elections check out www.sudanvotes.com. It features the reports of 30 journalists from Northern and Southern Sudan. For more information regarding the site itself check out Sudan Watch.