Voters preparing to cast their ballot inside a voting station in Nairobi, Kenya
The registration process in Kenya was a success and was free and fair, according to the South Sudan Referendum Commission (SSRC) Representative in Nairobi. He confirmed to NSC that more than 3 million people had registered in all the registration centres inside and outside Sudan, amidst claims by civic society groups in Kenya that the process was not transparent. But their claims are in contrast to what some civic society groups said at the end of the registration process. Under the banner of the Sudanese Network for Democratic Elections (SuNDE) and the Sudanese Group for Democracy and Elections (SuGDE), they ruled that the registration process for the 2011 Southern Sudan Referendum was conducted free from violations that could significantly impact the integrity of the process, despite some shortcomings with key preparations and planning.
The commission managed to register more than 15,000 South Sudanese resident in different parts of Kenya. There were eight main voting centres in Kenya, two in Nairobi, two in Kakuma refugee camp, one in Daadab refugee camp, and one each in Nakuru, Eldoret and Kitale. But the number of those who registered is in sharp contrast to the projects by the International Migration Organisation (IOM) which had estimated that there were 102,000 eligible voters of South Sudan origin resident in Kenya. These are people who are over 18 years old and who can be proved to be southerners. Asked about this disparity, the SSRC representative, Phillip Deng Achuoth said, “These estimations were wrong since some of the refugees who were in Kenya have already gone back to South Sudan after the signing of the peace agreement in 2005.” But the process has not been without controversy. Some civic education officials and other Sudanese residents in Nairobi complained about being sidelined by the IOM in the organization of the registration. One of them, Garang Malual said that the process was not transparent since the civic society was not allowed to observe the process. Malual says that they raised their complaints with the IOM officials but their concerns were not addressed adequately. Asked about these allegations, the SSRC representative said that the groups were not allowed to observe since most of them were thought to be partisan and would not be impartial in their observation. He regrets that there were no proper consultations with the people but promises that there will be proper consultations on the way forward as they look ahead to the voting in January 2011. He also acknowledged that the negotiations between the North and South governments took so long and this also affected the process as things were done in the last minute to beat the deadline stipulated by the peace agreement of 2005. While agreeing with Garang that there were not proper consultations, another Southern Sudanese, Mannaseh Mathiang says that the civic society should share the blame with IOM since some of them were misinformed and they were not aggressive enough to create awareness about the registration exercise. This, he says, coupled with the fact that some of the registration centres were located far from the people, affected the registration in a negative way. Another challenge that was cited was the fact that all accreditation for those who want to participate in the referendum process have to send their applications to Khartoum, from where they will be either given or denied permission. This has affected some media organizations and journalists who would like to cover the event. Talking to some of the South Sudanese residents in Kenya, you sense that there is a strong will to vote and many of them are promising to vote for secession. The SSRC representative concurs with this. “Some of the people travelled for many kilometres, from as far as Nyeri, to come and register in Nairobi.” He adds that there was a strong commitment from the Sudanese, especially those working as registration officials, many of whom are students, and who started working without any payment whatsoever from the referendum body. The highest turnout in Kenya was recorded in Kakuma refugee camp centre, where more than 5000 people were registered, followed by Nairobi, Nakuru, Eldoret, Kitale and Daadab. Elsewhere, both local and international observers have said that the referendum voter registration exercise was a successful and credible process. Although the two governments in Sudan, the Government of Sudan (GOS) and Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) accused each other of some irregularities on the registration process, the international observers still approved the process as credible. Therefore, despite doubts lingering in the minds of many, the Southern Sudanese referendum voters are now ready to vote on January 9. Announcing the results of the referendum voter registration in a press conference held in Juba, Justice Chan Reech Madut, the Chairperson of Southern Sudan Referendum Bureau (SSRB), assured the public that the commission is confident that the referendum vote will take place as scheduled on January 9, 2011. According to the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission Bureau, over, 3.2 million eligible voters have registered inside and outside the country.
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