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Sudan must work hard to
have elections on time: UN |
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KHARTOUM(August
16 - 17,2008) - Sudan's north-south foes have a lot
of work ahead to meet a July 2009 deadline to hold elections under
a landmark peace deal, the head of the United Nations mission charged
with monitoring the accord said on Thursday.
Ashraf Qazi said he hoped a National Electoral Commission (NEC) would
be formed quickly and offered U.N. help for the preparation for the
first democratic vote in 23 years.
"The NEC will have its work cut out for it to have these elections
on schedule," he told a news conference in Khartoum.
He said the NEC was an "essential interlocutor" for the
international community and donors would be willing to give funds
to help the process.
"We would have to work with the NEC on a number of issues to
enable them to have the kind of elections that the Sudanese people
will find acceptable," he said.
"For that, a lot of preparations are required."
He said demarcating the boundaries between north and south and around
disputed Abyei, which is rich in oil, were still necessary to delineate
constituencies before the vote.
On Abyei, he said both the northern Sudan Armed Forces and the southern
Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) had not fully withdrawn from
the region, and he urged them to do so.
"We do not see this as a major problem, it's just a question
of delays," he said. "I am confident that soon these forces
will have completely withdrawn from the areas."
An international source familiar with the situation said there could
be as many as 300 troops from both sides still in the region.
Clashes in May burnt most of Abyei town, killed dozens of people and
drove 50,000 people from their homes. Observers call Abyei Sudan's
"Kashmir", but with an administration agreed and the outstanding
issue of the border referred to an international tribunal, Qazi said
there was good progress.
The north-south conflict claimed 2 million lives and pitted the Islamist
Khartoum government against mostly Christian and animist southern
rebels. It was complicated by issues of religion, ethnicity and ideology.
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