Sudan Elections Roundup Part Two

Yesterday’s roundup here.

The biggest news yesterday in Sudan’s elections was the announcement of a two-day extension for voting. Polls will now stay open through Thursday. The National Election Commission also “acknowledged administrative and technical mistakes during the first day of the voting process in the general elections.”

Other news:

• On-the-ground views from BBC correspondents in Khartoum, Juba, and Fasher.
• Hoda Abdel-Hamid of Al Jazeera English continues her reporting from Sudan.
• The opposition “accused the United States of backing the country’s elections despite the deep flaws favoring the government.”
• For its part, the US State Department “called Sudan’s national elections an important milestone in the country’s peace process, but said the Khartoum government could have done more to assure a free and fair process.”
• Optimists include former US President Jimmy Carter: “Although we are going to have some faults and problems that are inevitable, we hope and pray that [the elections] will be credible and they are going to lead to a future where, if there are two nations, they are living in peace with each other.”
• and, in a way, Alex de Waal, also on the ground in Sudan: “For the last 24 years, since I spent Sudan’s last multi-party election day in the village of Nankose, south of Zalingei, whenever I received a message from one of these places, it was usually to report a story of execution, starvation, or forced displacement. My questions were, who is dead and who is alive, who is in prison and who is still free? Today the questions are, did the ballots arrive in time? Were all the names on the electoral roll? What was the voter turnout?”
• The New York Times has photographs of voting.
• Ishbel Matheson looks at voting problems and lack of infrastructure in the South.
• The Christian Science Monitor discusses oil politics and the future of Southern Sudan.
• Is the South a “pre-failed state“?
• And…a call for the US to intervene in Sudan, potentially militarily.

That’s all I got. Contributions welcome in the comments section. I leave you with another AJE video: