Voters registration for elections in Sudan begins

Voters registration started Sunday in all parts of Sudan ahead of the general elections in the country, scheduled for April 2010, said Abdalla Ahmed Ahmed, deputy chairman of the Sudanese National Election Commission (NEC).

"The NEC, through all its higher committees in the states and in coordination with the federal and state concerned authorities, has set up all necessary arrangements to implement the voters registration phase," Ahmed told Xinhua in a statement.

He called on the Sudanese political parties to urge their supporters to rush to the registration centers to make the democratic experience a success, stressing the importance of participation of all the community sectors in this process to pave the way for their participation in the coming elections.

Meanwhile, NEC member Al Hadi Mohamed Ahmed said in press statement in Khartoum Sunday that the voters registration phase constituted 70 percent of the electoral process, saying that the registration was set to last till Nov. 30.

The United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) said in a press release Saturday that it would participate in the Sudanese voters’ registration, and described its participation as "the largest ever" in the history of the organization.

According to the press release, UNMIS would deliver a total of 117,880 kilograms of electoral materials, including registration kits and forms among others, to locations identified by the NEC.

The transportation to the 25 state capitals would be funded by United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the operational planning and final delivery of the materials to 43 inaccessible and remote locations in Southern Sudan and Southern Kordofan would be with the support of UNMIS air assets, according to the press release.

Source: Xinhua