Sudanese president and presidential candidate Omar al-Bashir gestures after he casts his vote on Sunday in Khartoum in Sudan's first multiparty elections in decades. The elections were extended for two days on April 12. (Amr Nabi, AP)
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
KHARTOUM, SUDAN Apr 12 2010 17:49
Sudan's elections commission on Monday announced a two-day extension to voting until April 16, after many voters experienced delays across Africa's largest country in the first open elections in 24 years.
"There is a two-day extension throughout the whole country," Sudan's National Elections Commission secretary general Jalal Mohamed Ahmed told Reuters.
"It is to give more time to the voters," he added.
South Sudan's main party on Sunday asked for a four-day extension in the south, where a mostly illiterate population was grappling with 12 ballot papers and where decades of civil war had devastated infrastructure.
The complex presidential, legislative and gubernatorial polls, which began on Sunday, are aimed at transforming Sudan from a nation emerging from decades of multiple civil wars to a democracy.
After a boycott by the main opposition in the north, the vote now looks likely to confirm the 21-year rule of President Omar al-Bashir -- the only sitting head of state wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, which alleges he was behind mass murder and rape in Darfur.
Across the country -- even in the capital, Khartoum -- voting materials were not delivered to stations, the wrong ballots arrived at many centres and opposition and independent candidates said their names or symbols were either missing or incorrect.
Many had complained and asked for an extension to the voting to compensate for the delays and resolve the problems. -- Reuters
Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-04-12-sudan-extends-voting-for-two-days-after-delays
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