Sudan poll count shortcut raises fraud fears

Submitted by Scramble For Africa on Sun, 04/25/2010 - 2:05pm

From Reuters:

Hard-pressed Sudanese election officials told staff to save time and stop entering results into a safeguard computer system, leaving vote counting open to fraud and error, international sources said on Saturday.

Sudan is days late in announcing the results of its first open elections in 24 years, a complex process already marred by boycotts and opposition accusations of vote rigging.
The elections, set up under a 2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of north-south civil war, were designed to help transform the oil-producing nation into a democracy ahead of a key 2011 southern referendum on secession.
Sudan's National Elections Commission (NEC) told state polling committees to stop collecting data on computers and start sending in voting figures collated on paper, said the three sources, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"The concern is that any way of tracking what's going on and any control mechanisms are out of the window. They could write down anything on a bit of paper," said one elections observer.

Sudan is days late in announcing the results of its first open elections in 24 years, a complex process already marred by boycotts and opposition accusations of vote rigging.

The elections, set up under a 2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of north-south civil war, were designed to help transform the oil-producing nation into a democracy ahead of a key 2011 southern referendum on secession.

Sudan's National Elections Commission (NEC) told state polling committees to stop collecting data on computers and start sending in voting figures collated on paper, said the three sources, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"The concern is that any way of tracking what's going on and any control mechanisms are out of the window. They could write down anything on a bit of paper," said one elections observer.