Sudan begins fragile walk to post-peace deal polls
Posted by africanpress on July 30, 2008
Sudan’s vice-president Salva Kiir Mayardit waves upon his arrival at the 12th Summit of the Comesa Authority of Heads of States and Government at the United Nations offices in Nairobi, Kenya, May 23, 2007. The summit ends today. REUTERS/Antony Njuguna (KENYA)
JUBA, Monday – The winners wined while the losers refused to leave their offices. Some refused to hand over party files to their successors while others appealed against the vote. Yet others instigated communal fighting.
And as Sudan’s ex-rebels formally start the countdown to next years poll, billed as the first truly democratic election in decades, the focus again turns, not just to the implications of the vote for the country’s democratisation, but also the anticipated fall-out.
Shortly before the party met to discuss the result, its deputy secretary general, Dr Ann Itto, told the Nation: “This meeting is to get the Political Bureau to look at issues surrounding elections, given that the Election Bill was passed in Parliament, and now we have elections coming.”
Signed election Act into law
Sudan must hold presidential and parliamentary elections by July 2009, according to the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended a 21-year civil war.
On July 8, 2008, Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir signed the Election Act into law. That means a national electoral commission must be created by August 8, a month after the the law was adopted.
President al-Bashir will name the nine-member commission, which must be approved by Vice President Salva Kiir, in line with the CPA.
“There has been no democracy in the Sudan and no electoral bill in our country,” Southern Sudan’s Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Martin Elias Lumoro, who is also chairman of Southern Sudan Democratic Forum, told reporters.
“This is a milestone for us, but the polls represent a turning point for Sudan in another way. For the first time in the country’s history, the law under which the polls will be held takes into account the fears of the country’s different regions.”
The SPLM has said Mr Kiir will run for the presidency come the elections.
Not active enough
The SPLM has registered tens of thousands of members in northern Sudan, but some in the north say Mr Kiir does not spend enough time in Khartoum, and that many SPLM ministers in the national government have not been active enough.
The most sensitive issue in the north-south accord is the central, disputed oil-rich region of Abyei, which will also vote on secession in 2011.
In the poll, some 270 representatives in the 450-member parliament will be elected directly. Political parties will nominate the rest of the MPs based on quotas, depending on the vote each party garners at the polls. A quarter of the seats will be reserved for women.
The leading Parties are the SPLM, the political arm of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), which fought a 21-year war for self-determination, and the National Congress Party (NCP), the precursor to the Islamic Salvation Front, which has been in power since President Omar al Bashir staged a coup in 1989. President al-Bashir won a five-year term in 1996, and another in 2006 as president. It was a one-man race since the opposition boycotted the polls.
However, neither party is expected to lose in its stronghold — the NCP in the north and the SPLM in the south. greater activity is expected in the North because, unlike the south, it has other powerful parties and politicians.
The elections could have real significance for the realignment of forces in the country, and the victory might be determined by how the NCP and SPLM perform in the country’s east and west.
Eastern Sudan is the stronghold of the Beja Congress Party and the Eastern Front, and people in the area are likely to vote largely along ethnic lines.
Meanwhile, the east, although predominantly Muslim, has had a history of opposition to Khartoum, and is generally aligned with the rebels from the South.
But how will Darfuris vote? The region is predominantly Muslim but has a large African population. Darfur has generally aligned itself with the North, with many Darfuris providing foot-soldiers during fighting with the South.
Thus the election could be a referendum on the identity of Darfuris, and whether they are still hold religious prejudices against the South.
In addition, questions remain over whether the poll can be free and fair in a war-torn region, with poor technology and an almost non-existent infrastructure.
The census was an indicator of how the elections would be conducted: Three months after the event, forms containing the relevant data remain uncollected in village stores.
Another question being asked is whether the ruling party can oversee a credible election. Some people feel that for the South, the poll is coming too soon after it emerged from war and risks a return to violence.
Others are worried that in southern Sudan, which is ruled by a coalition of rebel groups, the elections could be a basis for instability.
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API/Nation.ke
