Elections in Sudan (1986)
My colleague Alex Meixner and I have recently written on the importance of the national elections in Sudan scheduled for April 2010 (here and here).
Going forward, the Save Darfur policy team will be writing periodic updates on the preparations for the elections, the political climate for free and fair elections, and how the elections are being used by various actors in Sudan to support their own agendas – especially Omar al-Bashir’s National Congress Party (NCP).
Reuters sounded an alarm yesterday with the headline, “Millions Could Miss Sudan Elections – Observers.” The story cited the Carter Center’s statement that their observation teams working in Sudan:
expressed concern that while turnout has been high in certain states, participation has been uneven and many states appear to lag behind in meeting registration targets. In light of these challenges, the Center also urged the NEC [National Election Commission] and Sudan’s state elections committees to make available additional funds for the registration process; redouble efforts to ensure that registration books and materials reach as many eligible Sudanese as possible, especially in areas with difficult logistical and security challenges; and expand civic education on voter registration.
The Center also urged the NEC and state elections committees to “take action to ensure timely accreditation for both national and international observers so that they can observe the entire electoral process, both during and after vote.”
Perhaps more disturbingly, the Center also warned of the Sudanese government’s efforts to intimidate voters in Darfur. The Sudan Tribune writes that the Center:
detailed specific instances of concern, such as the presence of agents of the National Intelligence and Security Service at registration centers in Darfur. The [Carter] statement noted that “NISS is not an agency perceived neutrally by a substantial proportion of the population. Through their mere presence at centers, NISS agents may serve to intimidate some citizens from registering.”
This statement comes four days after the U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan, Scott Gration, returned from Sudan andasserted his own concerns “about the chances for conducting credible elections and referenda.” Rather than identifying any of the problems highlighted by the Carter Center and others, Gration’s statement merely urged:
Sudanese citizens [to] take advantage of the recently announced one-week extension to register to vote, as it is the only way for the Sudanese people to maintain their right to participate in the national elections in April 2010.
So where do things stand today? The elections (delayed six more days by the NEC last week) are scheduled to begin on April 11. Who will participate remains to be seen. Two days ago, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the northern opposition parties stated that their leaders would wait until December 12 to decide on their participation. Since the signing of the Juba Declaration in September, they have set out the following conditions for their participation:
- The upholding of basic freedoms as stipulated in the Basic Human Rights Charter which has been incorporated in Interim National Constitution of 2005; and
- The amendment of all laws related to freedoms and democratic transformation and bringing them in consonance with the INC, namely the National Security Law, Criminal Procedures Law, Trade Unions Law, Immunities Law, Personal Status Law, Press and Publications Law, Public Order Laws.
On the same day, the United Nations Deputy Secretary General on Peacekeeping Operations, Edmond Mulet, told the Security Council that “significant progresses remain to be made in coming months for the April 2010 Sudanese national elections to make any sense in Darfur.”
For those that would like more information about the current elections and the history of elections in Sudan, I strongly recommend the Rift Valley Institute’s “Elections in Sudan: Learning from Experience.” Justin Willis, one of the authors of the report published in May, has recently written a shorter follow-up analysis in which he concludes:
“[t]he call for urgent action on the part of the international community made in the RVI report in April – a call that was echoed by a number of other bodies – has not been answered…”
“The fear is that – unless circumstances change very rapidly and substantially – it is now simply too late to make necessary arrangements, either in terms of creating a free and fair environment, or in terms of bureaucratic organization, to make elections in April 2010 a success in terms of widespread participation and a sense of involvement across the country.”
Given these concerns, Willis then strongly urges the international community to state clearly throughout the registration and election process any evidence of significant failure of organization or malpractice: “This clarity is necessary because one or more parties will claim a popular mandate on the basis of the elections, and others will undoubtedly challenge this; the international sponsors will face a difficult position whatever happens, and ambiguity or uncertainty over the status of the elections will make this worse.”
For the Obama administration, there is a chance tomorrow to begin clarifying the measures that the U.S. will use to judge the elections as free and fair. When General Gration testifies before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, let’s hope that members of the committee will ask him serious questions about American policy toward this critical period in Sudan’s history. Stay tuned.
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