Sudanese elections unfair, say observers

Published on Saturday 17 April 2010 20:59

THE first multi-party elections in nearly a quarter of a century in Sudan failed to meet international standards, observers said last night.

Incumbent president Oman Hassan al-Bashir is widely expected to win the vote when the first results are announced on Tuesday.

But foreign experts have already expressed concerns. The elections were boycotted by many of al-Bashir's critics. "These elections have struggled to reach international standards. They have not reached them all," the head of the European Union's observer mission in Sudan, Veronique de Keyser, said yesterday.

The five days of voting, which ended on Thursday, were the first multi-party presidential, parliamentary and local elections in 24 years. They were a key requirement of a 2005 peace deal that ended the 21-year civil war between the Sudan's predominantly Arab and Muslim north and rebels in the Christian-animist south. The war left two million people dead.

The EU mission concluded that key aspects of the election process were undermined.

"Although these elections paved the way for democratic progress, it is essential that the shortcomings are addressed," de Keyser said in Khartoum. "In addition to deficiencies in voter lists, week organisation hindered voters' participation. I'm also concerned that polling was affected by intimidation and threats."

The EU had 130 observers at 13 per cent of the country's polling stations.

Former US president Jimmy Carter's election monitoring organisation delivered a similar assessment yesterday. "It is too early to offer a final, overall assessment, but it is obvious that the elections will fall short of international standards that are expected of advanced democracies," Carter said. "The people's expectations have not been met."