NEC vehicles stopped by SPLA Army and innocent woman killed

Briefing journalists in the Southern Sudan High Election Commission (SSHEC), the Chairman of the National Election Commission (NEC), Abel Alier, said the incident occurred on October 22nd, when nine cars were carrying important documents belonging to the NEC. He explained that the cars were accompanied by a special police force appointed by the Commission. The documents were on there way to the State High Election Committee. In the stop point some quarrels emerged between the NEC’S police and the army at the road custom guarding the road’s gate. Shooting as a result took place making one woman, a wife of a soldier, meeting her creator from a stray bullet.

Alier said after reports on this incident reached the NEC in Khartoum, an NEC delegation under his leadership took the step to come to Juba for findings of why and how the incident occurred. “We considered right to come to Juba and so we visited the site of the incident in Gudele and interviewed some of the soldiers from both sides of the police and army. They gave us the general picture of what happened,” Alier said.

Juba Post Hard Copy 2nd November 2009

This has sparked the NEC’s delegation to conduct an urgent meeting with some senior political elites of the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) and the Government of National Unity (GoNU) on Monday to make deep findings on the matter.

The high political elite committees were headed by the Vice President of GoSS, Dr. Riack Machar, and the Vice President of the Republic, Dr. Ali Osman Taha, on behalf of GoNU. The committees of the two governments came up with a resolution in which the police were assigned to carry out an investigation of why such an incident happened, Alier said.

Hence, apart from the incident as the core set back to the meeting of the big elephants, Alier said they discussed other relevant matters that would interfere with the process of the elections and also the implementation of NEC activities. They also discussed on how all the political parties, NEC, SSHEC and the High Election Committees in the twenty five States of Sudan should pay attention to the up-coming months following the implementation of the election processes in the country.

The NEC delegation also met some senior officials in the Ministry of Internal Affairs headed by a director general and discussed issues that are relevant to the police on due course of the electoral process till the voting time in April 2010. Moreover, the delegation met senior officials in the Ministry of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army Affairs to discuss the role of the SPLA in what happened in Gudele. Furthermore, Alier said that they also discussed the role the SPLA should play in ensuring the security of the elections all over Southern Sudan.

Chairman Alier pointed out the differences and relationships between NEC and the various organs of the GONU, GOSS and State Governments of both Southern Sudan and the North. He said that the NEC is guided by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the Interim National Constitution and the National Elections Act. “Our role as Commission down to the High Committees is to act as referee for the national elections”, Alier said. “We are guided by these three important documents and we are to ensure that elections are free and fair and that is why at a certain stage in the past we made sure that there are local, regional and international observers to see on the ground what is happening”.

“How is the process being managed, how smoothly it is going, what are the handicaps?” Alier explained. The Gudele incident of late October was a set-back factor that triggered the NEC’s delegation to come from Khartoum to Southern Sudan. It was a signal of a challenge of insecurity to the activities of the NEC on due course of the process of the up-coming elections. Assuming the carried documents in those stopped vehicles were looted, what could happen to the process on-track of the NEC’s activities?

Will the process be taken back, brought to a stand or another brain-work could have been initiated to produce some documents? If so, which budget again will be used to produce some documents taking reports that activities of the SSHEC are being hindered by in adequate funds? Insecurity in the Sudan is one of the greatest challenges almost affecting political, social and economic implementation of activities in the Sudan,  particularly Southern Sudan. As a result it has scared investors from the areas where insecurity is high among other activities.

Following inter-tribal clashes, especially in Southern Sudan early this year, thousands of innocent civilians were killed, wounded and displaced - something terrifying that other people looked at as a factor that will hinder the success of the up-coming 2010 April elections.