Articles and Analysies
Postponement of National Elections by Sami Alshazali
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Sep 23, 2008 - 9:12:02 AM

Postponement of National Elections

The country is preparing after thorough consultation to form the election commission for the 2009 national elections as the electoral bill has been endorsed by the national Council a couple of months ago.

According to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the elections is to take place in the second half of the interim period which means that the elections should be conduced next July.

It is recognized these days that several parties started calling for elections� postponement due to unreasonable justifications. It is clear to any observer that those parties calling for the postponement are not ready for the process due to their blunder during the previous times and then all of a sudden they found themselves facing the fast approach of the date fixed to conduct the elections.
Even the SPLM, which is supposed to be the first to ensure that elections were held in respect to the date stipulated in the CPA and signed between the two partners in the presence of the international community, are calling for its postponement as the date set for it will coincide with the rainy season which will make the elections process a difficult task; beside the security situation in the Darfur states.

SPLM, and before signing the CPA knew very well the weather and climate conditions in Southern Sudan, so it is not a new situation which deserves putting it into consideration.

It seems that there are two or more trends within the SPLM as that is clear from the contradictory statements in several issues such as the election of Salva Kiir for the Presidency in which several SPLM leaders affirmed that Salva will run for the post of the President during the forthcoming elections and others denied that.

We urge all political parties including the SPLM to reconsider their stance towards the elections date and to come out with resolutions that will prove that they are institutional parties and not just individual views.