Sudan’s President Bashir Threatens to Cut Off the Fingers of Election Monitors If Polls Are Delayed

President Omar al-Bashir - Making Threats

The President of Sudan, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, has threatened to hack-off the fingers of election monitors if the country’s election are delayed. He also made a threat on Monday to expel international election monitors after they said April’s vote may have to be delayed. He said in comments broadcast on state TV “We brought these organisations from outside to monitor the elections, but if they ask for them to be delayed, we will throw them out, we wanted them to see the free and fair elections, but if they interfere in our affairs, we will cut their fingers off, put them under our shoes, and throw them out.”

Election observers said last week that the country may need a slight delay in its first multi-party elections in 24 years to deal with logistical problems, with hundreds of thousands of names missing from the voters’ list weeks before the polls. Officials at the Carter Center issued a report saying Sudan’s April presidential and legislative elections remained at risk on multiple fronts, and urged Sudan to lift harsh restrictions on rallies and end fighting in Darfur ahead of the ballot. Opposition presidential candidate Mubarak al-Fadil has criticized Sudan’s National Elections Commission for making decisions that favoured Bashir’s ruling party.

Voting is due to start in the country on April 11 in elections promised under a 2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of north-south civil war. The country is preparing for some of the most complex elections on record with at least six different votes using three different voting systems. The ballot, originally scheduled before July 2009, has already been delayed several times. According to the carter Center, Sudan’s National Elections Commission were lagging. Most of the opposition parties in the country have called for the elections to be postponed. According to them, Sudan needs more time to pass democratic reforms.

© 2010, Newstime Africa. All rights reserved. – Reproduction of Newstime Africa content on any other news medium without the prior consent or approval of the publishers is forbidden, and in direct contravention of International copyright laws. Violators will be pursued and prosecuted.