Hanged by the NEC (II)
Nobody will ever know who really won this election! The counting of votes has been so chaotic that it is simply impossible to find out the true number of votes cast for each candidate. Every single check and balance that should be in place to allow the election observers to see which results are genuine and which are fraudulent have been bypassed. We don’t know how many books of ballots were distributed to each polling station, how many were used, and which voting tallies accord with which station. Most of the NEC staff who are tallying the votes are untrained, recruited just days ago with no experience at all! Some of them have to ask the observers for assistance because the observers know their job better than they do. The sheets with the totals have one number written in, rubbed out, overwritten again, time and again! It is so chaotic it is shameful! Every day the NEC instructs that there has to be another shortcut so that they can announce something. No wonder the Chairman of the NEC has washed his hands of all the thousands of complaints and told everyone to go to court instead.
Anyone who harboured any doubts that the results are 100% set by political interests only had to see how Malik Agar won the Blue Nile for the SPLM! One day he was losing the count and telling the NCP that if he lost he would go back to war and demanding a recount. The next day the top brass of the NCP flew to Damazin and suddenly some forgotten ballot boxes appeared and Commander Agar suddenly was declared the victor! Those who had rigged the election in the first place shamelessly counter-rigged the next day.
The international community has turned a blind eye to everything that has gone on and declared that the election results will be accepted. We know the reason for this, which is that they are mainly interested in the referendum in South Sudan next year. They are making a big mistake because if, after two years’ preparation, the NEC can make such a fiasco out of the elections, do we really expect that the South Sudan Referendum Commission will do a better job in eight months? At least we now know where to look for the rigging but if the international community has its eyes shut what difference will that make? Democracy in Sudan is truly hanged by the NEC!
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Dear Muawia Abdel Karim,
I agree with you that the international community got the commodity of the 2011 referendum and the Sudanese paid the price. since the beginning the NEC was designed a tool to be manipulated by the NCP and intentionally it was set to be blamed as scape goat for the rigging at the end under the disguise of inexperience, technical problems and ill-preparations.
Once Al-Bashir said if the US is pleased with what you are doing then that means you are on the wrong track. This is the first time that I agree with him since 1989.
This election should have disabused Sudanese democratic forces of two false presuppositions. One is that an institution headed by respected gentlemen, supposedly independent of political ambition, including (contrary to what is said by Khalid) several nominated by the SPLM and diverse opposition parties, can stand above the bazaar of Sudanese politics and conduct itself in a mythical fair-play manner. Legitimate complaints can be made of the NEC. Many of them are objective. But the opposition can not exonerate itself of its complicity in this institution, because it itself was part of it.
Equally this election should at long last bury the canard that the western world is some kind of impartial referee, upholding universal standards. This is a kind of right-fetishism dearly nourished by those who have lost touch with the realities of power and the demands of political mobilization. This referee can blow his whistle as much as he likes and wave yellow cards to his heart’s content (he has no red cards) but the only one who will be fooled is the player who is flat on the pitch while play goes on. The western countries have their interests and they pursue them, and those who believe that they will set aside material and political objectives for the sake of a few slogans deserve only the wake-up call that has inexorably occurred.
Dear Abdel Wahab,
Sudan is far too important for the international community just to sit back and watch it descend into a new disaster! They will be forced to intervene without a shadow of a doubt. Just as the elections were fatally flawed from the outset (as Intl Crisis Group proved) so the referandum will be fatally flawed and this will open the eyes of the southerners and the Americans alike!
Muawia
Whatever the outcome is in Sudan, I can only hope that another civil war does not result. If we can even call what happened a civil war but rather ethnic cleansing. It is kind of hard to label something a civil war when one side has little to protect themselves from unprovoked violence.
People may claim that Americans have their own interests and reasons for getting involved and that those interests are purely selfish. However, as an American born and raised, I can safely say that Americans in general are growing tired of the disgusting humanity in this world. We are tired of the injustices witnessed in other countries. These outside issues do affect us here. A good example of outside issues directly effecting Americans is Mexico. As everybody may be noticing, there is a rise in American patriotism and standing up for those that cannot defend themselves. Call us the Tea Party, Patriots or Conservative Americans. Call us what you want, we are tired of the bullshit.
If there are any sympathizers of the Janjaweed here in the states, I suggest they keep their mouths shut and their political views to themselves. I will personally put my foot up there ass if I hear any talk about sympathizing with those disgusting people responsible for genocide as seen in Darfur some years back.