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No Date Yet for Final Sudan Election Results

   VOA News 22 April 2010
   A  Sudanese election official displays a ballot for observers to view,
   during  the counting process at polling station in Khartoum, Sudan, 16
   April 2010

Photo: AP

   A  Sudanese election official displays a ballot for observers to view,
   during  the counting process at polling station in Khartoum, Sudan, 16
   April 2010

   Sudan's  elections  commission says it has not determined when it will
   announce  final  results  from  last week's polls, the country's first
   multi-party elections in 24 years.
   Results were originally due to be released Tuesday, but the commission
   has said it is still gathering results from polling centers around the
   country.
   Voting  was  marred  by  numerous  technical  and logistical problems,
   including  missing  names  from voter rolls and last-minute changes in
   polling sites.
   Partial  results  show  President  Omar  al-Bashir  and  his  National
   Congress  Party winning various districts, often with 80 or 90 percent
   of the vote.
   Former  southern  rebels  and  other parties either partially or fully
   boycotted  the  polls,  saying  the  NCP  and government would rig the
   outcome. The NCP has repeatedly denied the accusations.
   International reaction to the polls has been mixed. Sudan's ally China
   praised  the  elections  as  a  "success,"  while  the  United  States
   criticized the vote as neither free nor fair.
   However,  the United States said the vote was a very important step in
   carrying  out the 2005 peace deal that ended Sudan's north-south civil
   war.
   That  agreement  calls for the south, which is now semi-autonomous, to
   hold a referendum on full independence next year.

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