Sudan's first poll for 24 years confuses voters
Presidential and parliamentary elections. Polls for state governors and state legislatures. Some by the first-past-the-post system, some by proportional representation, and don’t forget the women’s quota.
Confused? The voters of Sudan are. In the north of the country people get eight votes, while in the south – where they have an additional southern legislature and a president of south Sudan – they get 12.
It’s so confusing that Salva Kiir, the man who is likely to be voted president of southern Sudan, spoilt one of his votes by putting it in the wrong box.
“Well, I have never voted in my life,” he said. “This is my first time.” Today the election commission announced that voting will be extended for another two days.
They had budgeted two minutes per voter, but – not surprisingly – people are taking 15 minutes or more to figure it out.
That’s not allowing for all the mistakes, reported on the Sudan Vote Monitor website.
For example, a candidate in Omdurman found that he was down as standing in not one but three constituencies.
In White Nile State symbols for some candidates appeared several times over, and in Sinar constituency a candidate found that his symbol – a teapot – was not on the ballot at all.
So how fair is this election? “There is no chance of cheating in the voting or counting,” said Faisal Salih of Media in Cooperation and Transition, an NGO in Khartoum. “The rigging has already happened in the demarcation of constituencies and the registration.”
Many voters, he said, find that when they arrive to cast their vote, their names are not on the list. They may also end up voting for candidates who aren’t standing, as several opposition parties withdrew after the deadline, so their symbols remain on the ballot even though they’ve decided there’s no point in going ahead.
President Omar al Bashir is likely to remain as head of state, a position he assumed when he seized power in a coup in 1989. But in some ways, that’s not the point.
The reason Sudan is holding elections is because it’s part of the agreement which ended the war between north and south in 2005. It paves the way for a referendum on independence for the south, to be held next year. That will only go ahead if this poll proceeds.
So many southerners who hate the president, and mistrust this election, will vote nonetheless.
This election will consolidate President al Bashir’s power, but also set them on the path to splitting from Sudan altogether, and establishing their own country, under a southern leadership.
