We are sat like expectant fathers as election results drip through

Will these elections secure our future? That is the question on our lips as we wait for the historic election results to come through. I really feel like i did when waiting for knowledge of my first born, with my wife in labour.

More than one week after the first presidential and multiparty general election in over two decades ended in Sudan, voters who against old odds managed to cast their votes including candidates contesting for various leadership positions have remained waiting for election results like anxious fathers whose pregnant wives are lying in labour wards with eagerness of hearing either good news of congratulations or the sad part of it that even the well trained and equipped medics could not do much to save the mother or the kid and may be both.

What has delayed the release of the results still remains a mystery to many including the foreign observers who monitored the elections that were characterized with a number of irregularities ranging from voters’ names not appearing on registration forms, delayed delivery of election materials not forgetting late opening of the polling exercise in some parts of the country. Where there are opponents in a political race, a football match or any game or sport it is known since creation that there has to be a winner and a loser and the reactions vary from situation to another.  There has never been two winners because even if the opponents tie in the same positions and same scores, a replay, re-run or tossing the coin has always be done to determine the winner who can not be more than one of the two or among many others. The reactions may include complaints of bias by the judges, umpires or referees and others put in charge to ensure a free and fair play.

But is our National Elections Commission-NEC prepared to stick to its status of being independent to deliver the right judgments or results of the just ended elections and will the losers honorably understand and accept the defeat?  

In Unity state, the care taker governor, Taban Deng Gai an SPLM flag bearer is one of the candidates who have vehemently rejected the results that favoured his rival Angelina Teny an independent candidate who contested for the governor’s seat. Governor Taban Deng Gai is ignoring the wide margin of over 24.000 votes between him and Angelina Teny and demanding the State High Elections Committee to declare him winner for the seat of governor in Unity state irrespective of the results. Besides the wide margin that does not even warrant a re-count of the ballots, an official of the National Electoral Commission in the Unity state capital of Bentiu, intimated to the media that security officers of the care taker governor had taken control of the Commission’s branch office to conduct a forceful dialogue with electoral staff demanding them to declare Taban Gai Deng as the winner. The official who declined to be named for his personal security further noted that senior officials in the state were consulting with the President of the Government of Southern Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit to intervene and allow a free and fair announcement of the results for the governor’s seat.

I am not belittling the incumbent president of the Government of Southern Sudan, SPLM Chairman and Commander In chief of the SPLA, but what is the logic of consulting him over the announcement of election results in a constituency that he is not even a voter and at worst not a member of the electoral body. In Eastern Equatoria state, Election High Committee officials were compelled to suspend the ballots data entry when two Lorries full of armed security personnel cordoned off Rub-Hall where the activities were being conducted on Sunday. According to the Chairman of the State High Elections Committee Chairman, Joseph Ojuku his office had halted elections data collection and entry due to threats by armed security personnel who besieged the premises and quizzed the officials for several hours.

As if that was not all, the soldiers briefly detained the Chief returning officer, Atul Charles, the secretary of the State High Elections Committee, Amos Juma Ochieng and the Civic Education and Logistics officer Elizabeth Iwi Fredric who were interrogated as to why they were allegedly re-counting of the ballot papers. Is this a sign of "militarising" the first and multiparty elections in a country that suffered the longest recorded civil war of 20 years in Africa.

Sincerely if they were re-counting the ballot papers I believe it was their role and responsibility to ensure they had correct data for onward transmission to the National Elections Commission to whom they are accountable to but not the soldiers dressed and armed with resources from the tax payer or the voters’ economic contribution to the country. Five years after signing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the protracted civil war between the North and South, everybody now knows that the former rebel army has been transformed into a conventional and peoples army that is not supposed to be used by individuals for their own interests either in securing leadership positions than through the votes cast by the electorate for the candidates they considered suitable according to their manifestoes they disseminated during the campaign period.

Does it mean that those with access to the armed forces consider themselves as the owners of the votes cast or should be the winners of the elections even when the illiterate exercised a democratic right and  ticked a candidate of his or her choice.We know that guns would be used in robbing movable property but not the mandate and trust the electorate have handed to a candidate of their choice.The National Electoral Commission should remember that it was established by an Act of the National Assembly or Legislature to be an independent body responsible for conducting the elections and answerable to the appointing authority.Mr. NEC if you know this, then act independently and present the accountability of what you have done but not to wait for instructions from losers to intimidate you that you declare them winners despite the less votes they garnered or bagged from the electorate.All we need is peace achieved from the ballots not bullets like in the post election violence we heard in neighboring Kenya because some of us simply think offices or political positions are like our own houses that we can not leave for others to occupy.

Men of God are respected as our intercessors in society not only in areas of spiritual growth but also politics cannot be separated with these men in ceremonial collars and Crosses that symbolize the death of Jesus Christ who died for us the sinners and lost sheep because of earthly things.Prior to the elections, the clergy from different denomination held election peace prayers through out the country and called for peaceful elections, unity and love.
The masses and candidates themselves took part in some of these functions and whether all of them opened their hearts and minds to receive these messages is what we are waiting to see once the final results are released soon or later.

Bishop Hillary Adeba Luate of Yei Episcopal Diocese

On Wednesday afternoon of April 21, I took a quick walk to the residence of Bishop Hillary Adeba Luate of Yei Diocese in the Episcopal Church of Sudan-ECS and asked his Lordship what he though about the results and expected reaction. Although he did not specify on the reactions, Hillary Adeba Luate said National Elections Commission-NEC should be free and fair to all candidates who took part in the country’s first presidential and multiparty elections and avoid working under the influence of individuals in authority. Hillary Adebe Luate said free and fair declaration of the election results with out influence of individuals would facilitate a smooth formation of a responsible government that can formulate laws and effectively run the affairs of the country. Even the security forces are not superior because they are a regular conventional army that is not supposed to be used by individuals for their own interests but to protect lives and property of the citizens” Luate emphasized. The Bishop said manipulation of the awaited final results would be like the authorities exhibiting a spirit of not caring about the affairs of the state before their own people they represent at different levels of government. He called up on the authorities to persuade losers of the elections to honorably accept defeat for the sake of maintaining the prevailing peace in the country and those who lost should know that their votes had been less than those obtained by the victorious candidates. Hillary Adeba Luate stressed that losers in the just concluded elections should know that they did not secure peoples’ trust leading to defeat and should now look forward to lay more strategies that can make them win the trust and mandate of the electorate in future. He further stated that leaders do not need to use force that may plunge the country into the old days of more bloodshed adding that people were tired of running and fleeing to safety including exile in foreign countries.
The prelate cautioned that if results of the election do not come out well, the implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive peace Agreement and next year’s referendum on the secession of Southern Sudan may be affected.The Bishop expressed worry that the Intergovernmental Authority on Development-IGAD and the international community may not support the country anymore if their previous efforts to restore peace in Sudan are abused by the leadership itself. He noted that countries like United States, Holland, United Kingdom and Norway among others had gone an extra mile to ensure restoration of peace in Sudan may have no option if the Khartoum government continues to impose its leadership on the Southern population if it is considered as incapable of governing itself and running its own affairs.

The statements by the bishop came at a time, when incumbent officials who lost the election are trying to use their security forces to intimidate officials of the National Elections Commission to declare them as winners irrespective of the results that are far behind the votes garnered by the winners. A good leader or representative of the people should be that who is leading happy and settled people who are alive and freely interact with them rather than the dead ones, the internally displaced or fled to other countries to take refugee from problems engineered by the acts of their own leaders. Leaders come and leaders go is an old adage which all politicians should never forget and losers of an election should review their weaknesses so that they can grab the next victory.