Brussels, 19/04/2010 (Agence Europe) - In a report on the general elections in Sudan on 11 to 15 April, the EU observer mission headed by MEP Véronique de Keyser (S&D, Belgium) says that the elections were a crucial stage in implementation of the overall peace agreement but highlights serious shortcomings in the respect of international standards. On Saturday 17 April, De Keyser said the elections had done everything to try and meet international standards but had not managed it.
The delegation of MEPs involved in the observer mission (see EUROPE 10112) agrees with this view. The elections were not genuinely democratic because of a number of irregularities but at least they had made it possible to have unprecedented political debate in the war-torn country and had taken place without violence.
Ana Gomes (PES, Portugal) explained that in the North, there had been no real competition after a number of opposition parties withdrew and the majority party was too busy to travel to the voting bureaux. In the South, she said there had been competition, but the voters had been frustrated by the lack of organisation. Ana Gomes headed the delegation of six MEPs - José Manuel Garcia-Margallo y Marfil (EPP, Spain), Frank Engel (EPP, Luxembourg), Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar (S&D, Spain), John Attard-Montalto (S&D, Malta) and Jacek Wlosowicz (ECR, Poland).
Gomes added that the most important thing was that the elections had taken place in generally peaceful conditions that many would not have believed possible given the long war-mongering history of Sudan and the conflict still waging in Darfur, where the EU observers had not travelled.
The MEPs had been impressed by the Sudanese people's commitment to a democratic process in difficult conditions. Despite all the problems, the elections made a lively political debate possible on which the EU hopes the Sudanese will now base themselves in the pursuit of democratic transformation to which they aspire and which they so deeply need, added Gomes. (A.N./transl.fl)