NEC to Announce Presidential Elections Result Tomorrow
Sudan vision

The National Elections Commission (NEC) reported completion of all data related to the presidential polls in the northern States and abroad, informing that the data of the southern States will be finalized within the coming 24 hours to enable announcement of the elected national president tomorrow.
Chief of the Commission’s Technical Department, Lt. Gen. Alhadi Mohammed Ahmed, stated that security was stable in the Unity State. He added that the NEC work was proceeding normally, noting that ballot data was received from 13 constituencies in Warrap State.
The NEC counting of yesterday showed that the top winners at the national and state-levels were Dr. Ghazi Salahaddeen Alatabani, Prof. Ibrahim Ghandour, Dr. Mandour Almahdi, Lt. Gen Salah Abdallah Gosh, Dr, Jalal Aldigair, Dr. Mustafa Osman Ismail, Dr. Ahmed Bilal, Alzahawi Ibrahim Malik and Jamal Alwali.
In a press conference, Ahmed announced the victory of  the SPLM  candidate in the Blue Nile State, Malik Agar, who  polled  118,119 votes  as well as the success of  some  NCP candidates in some states, namely, Farah Ibrahim Agar (Blue Nile) 99,419 votes, Yousif Ahmed Alshanballi (White Nile ) 271,041, Prof. Alzubair Bashir Taha (Gezira) 964,409, Mohammed Tahir Aila (Red Sea)  385,273, Ahmed Abass Sa’ad (Sennar) 244,932, Karamallah Abbas Alshiekh (Gedarif)  235,377 votes.
Elections Attorney dismissed NCP fraud and other irregularities legal suites against the SPLM for lack of material evidence.
NCP Affirms its Keenness to Maintain Relations with SPLM
Source : (SUNA)

The National Congress affirmed that it will preserve its relation with Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) toward completing the remaining issues in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).
In a statement Thursday, the Secretary of the Information Secretariat of the National Congress, Fathi Shaila, said that the joint mechanism of the National Congress and SPLM will continue its work, adding that the SPLM knows well that it has interest in working with the National Congress.
He said that the National Congress decided to retain its higher elections committee toward conducting assessment of the accomplishment in the recent elections.
On claims of some political leaders about rigging in the elections, Shaila said that the Sudanese people, who were witnesses of the election process, are meeting like such allegations with ridicule.
Shaila indicated that the result of the recent elections was not surprising to the National Congress and also the other political parties. 
Sudan Votes

Source: Voice of America
The Sudanese people went to the polls last week in the first multiparty elections there in 24 years
The Sudanese people went to the polls last week in the first multiparty elections there in 24 years. Despite reported problems and irregularities, the voting was an important step toward implementing the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the nation's long-running civil war.

The electoral process was a complicated and massive one, as millions of Sudanese voted for candidates for state, regional and national offices. For most, it was their first ever opportunity to cast a vote, and their commitment to fostering democracy is to be commended.

There were serious problems with these elections, however. Concerns about the electoral environment led some opposition parties to boycott the balloting. During the five days of voting, there were numerous reports of confusion over voter lists, particularly in areas of Southern Sudan.

Along with others in the international community that are supporting Sudan in the peace process, the United States regrets that the National Elections Commission did not do more to prevent and address these problems before the vote. If disputes emerge as the ballots are counted, we strongly encourage the commission to deal with them in good faith.

Progress has been made, though, and it is essential to build on it. We call on the Sudanese authorities to draw lessons from the 2010 vote to ensure that the Southern Sudan autonomy referendum next year and other elections in the future do not suffer from the same flaws.
Sudan: Election Observation and Some Wishful Thinking
Source: Refugees International (RI)


Like many others, Refugees International has been watching the
Sudanese elections process closely, eagerly awaiting feedback from the various electoral observer missions. Preliminary statements coming out of some of the missions are fairly disappointing. The focus seems to be less on providing an objective assessment of how the process measures up to international standards, and more on excusing certain actions because of low expectations and a political desire for the elections to be seen as a success.
Take as an example, this excerpt from statement of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD):
"Taking into account that the Sudan is undertaking a massive exercise for the first time in 24 years, the vast size of the country and the challenges of infrastructure, our preliminary assessment is that the election process was credible. This is in view of promoting a peaceful and democratic transformation of the country."
No doubt that Sudan faces many challenges and nobody reasonably expects a perfect election. But there is a difference between an objectively credible process and a process declared credible in the interest of a wider agenda in support of systemic change. The suggestion that the elections should be declared credible as a way of "promoting a peaceful and democratic transformation of the country" makes me wonder if IGAD is observing the elections that actually took place or the ones they wish would take place some day. In any case, declaring flawed elections credible will not promote peaceful and democratic transformation. Quite the opposite – it will promote anger, frustration and alienation among the very people needed to make democracy work: the electorate.
The African Union statement included remarks along similar lines to IGAD's:
A country emerging out of a long period of repression, civil war, contending as Sudan does, with underdevelopment, manifesting in part, in high levels of illiteracy, an on-going crisis of the magnitude of Darfur cannot, justly, be compared to one or others that have enjoyed peace, steady and incremental economic development and political stability 24 years previously and before.
Again, this is objectively true. But it also seems to imply that the long period of repression, civil war and underdevelopment, etc., were examples of rather unfortunate bad luck that happened to the country, rather than the result of deliberate decisions made by individuals in power. This is an especially worrying oversight when those individuals are still in power and were overseeing these elections.
The Russian Special Envoy to Sudan was quoted in the Sudan Tribune on April 19 as saying that the elections should be judged by "African standards" as if, because it's Africa, people should be willing to accept levels of transparency and accountability that are lower than elsewhere. If the story is true, it is offensive and it's hard to see how it helps the thousands of Sudanese domestic observers and civil society representatives who have been diligently struggling, often at great personal risk, to fight for a more democratic process. Overall, the Carter Center's statement was the least equivocal, stating clearly that "the process fell short of Sudan's obligations and related international standards in a number of respects."
The main observer missions say they are following the UN Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation (2005) as a guide. However, the UN Declaration says that election observation is "process oriented, not concerned with any particular electoral result…" Ironically, many observer missions and others seem to be less concerned with process and more concerned with results that, in their eyes, will hopefully enhance stability. The April 19 "Troika" statement from the U.S., the UK and Norway, although expressing "deep concern" about aspects of the electoral process, nevertheless remained solidly focused on ensuring the election results do not interfere with the successful implementation of the rest of the provisions of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). The U.S. and others are right to focus on the implementation of the CPA, but this needs to be done via a credible process, not a box-ticking exercise that ends up leaving significant parts of the Sudanese population disengaged and disenfranchised.
That said, these were all preliminary statements, so we will need to await the final reports in order to make our ultimate judgment on the performance of the electoral observers.
Women: An Unprecedented Role
Sudan vision: Editorial:

It was not a secret that Sudan has a relatively long experience of multi-party elections process, with women playing significant roles within that process, compared to their sisters in our neighboring African and Arab states.
The reality on the ground has exceeded the expectations of huge women involvement in our recent landmark polls such an outstanding involvement could be attributed to many factors such as : -
The Interim National Constitution for 2005 has allowed women a rate of 25% participation in the national and regional parliaments, besides, the opportunity to national elections candidacy at all levels including presidency.
As a liberal society, the Sudanese have no traditionally reserved on women social and political rights. Such a tendency motivated considerable women participation based on the constitution provisions on one hand and the political heritage of women engagement in public work that  included  ministerial capacities and top judiciary seats.
Despite the hot weather and logistic inconveniences, the recent elections witnessed candidacy of a number of women contesting at all ballot levels, including the presidential seat.
A woman from the Socialist Union Party, Prof. Fatima Abdelmahmoud, presented herself as presidential candidate, launching a convincing program for such a post.
Wonderfully, women rivals were not exclusively from the Capital Khartoum or other major cities, rather they were from all the corners of Sudan.
Throughout, the five-day voting period women of all ages, social segments, literate or otherwise, queued in hundreds of thousands in front of the various polling stations to exercise their democratic right. That remarkable political engagement is an indicator of their considerable awareness and concern with the need to shape a prosperous future of their homeland.
So, thanks to their family members and political parties that enabled them to access those stations to select their representatives.
Such a phenomenon, not only took by surprise international elections monitors, but also regional and global entities that issued news on the outstanding participation of South Sudan women.
Sudanese women long historical political participation as MPs, ministers,  trade unionists, senior civil servants and the like, as well as their current elections involvement  are compared to non in Afro-Arab world