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SPLM urges southern Sudanese in Uganda not to boycott voter registration

November 16, 2010 JUBA – Southern Sudanese living in neighboring Uganda have begun registering to vote in the region’s independence referendum in January after conflicting messages over whether the exercise would be boycotted.

On Sunday it appeared that the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, who governed the south since a 2005 peace deal, were encouraging southerners to boycott registration amid fears that they would not be able to vote on polling day.

Emails seen by Sudan Tribune indicated that officials were travelling to Uganda to tell southern Sudanese not to register.

The initial decision by the South Sudanese communities in Kampala and other parts of Uganda was to boycott registration, but the decision was however reversed on Sunday, Sudan Tribune has learnt.

Chuol Wan Luot, Coordinator for Diaspora and International Stakeholders in the Southern Sudan 2011 Referendum Task force Technical Secretariat, who just returned from a 2-day trip Uganda said on his return to Juba that planning for registration had been halted by a “bad rumor”.

Following the reports of the planned registration boycott, Luot was among a delegation sent by the office of the President of South Sudan to meet Sudanese in Kampala and in the West Nile district of Arua.

The delegation was invited by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) who are conducting voter registration for southern Sudanese residing outside Sudan.

According to Luot, southern Sudanese living in Uganda wanted to either boycott the registration process completely or simply return and register from South Sudan.

He said that the delegation from the taskforce went not only for a fact finding mission, but also to convince Sudanese living in Uganda to remain there and register normally.

The Government of Southern Sudan remains committed towards helping its citizens living in Uganda and those in the Diaspora take part in the referendum, Luot said.

On Sunday the delegation headed by Joseph Madak Both, the Director of Monitoring and Policies Office of the President and Vice President Government of Southern Sudan addressed South Sudanese Communities at Kabira Country Club in Kampala.

Community leaders, Churches leaders, civil organization and political parties who attended the four hour briefing yesterday were told that to urge their communities to register in Uganda if they were unable to return to south Sudan.

The Lakes state representative in Uganda, Abraham Majok said, that a lack of credible information from the Government of Southern Sudan had led to some potential voters rejecting registering through the IOM.

But he said that that now the southern government had visited the country and told them their position they were happy to register in Uganda.

Eight countries will be registering Diaspora voters for the referendum; Uganda ,Kenya, Ethiopia ,United Kingdom, United States of America, Canada, Australia.

The south is widely expected to vote for independence in January’s poll, which was agreed as part of a 2005 peace deal that ended over two decades of north-south conflict.

(ST)

8 Comments

  • Gatwech
    Gatwech

    SPLM urges southern Sudanese in Uganda not to boycott voter registration
    Dear readers,

    I personnaly would prefer that those in Uganda never registered because the NCP would rig their votes, especially in Northern Uganda.

    I am however concerned about the SPLM’s public call telling citizens not to register in Uganda. The letter of SPLM secretary of Information, Bol Makueng, should not be publicly distributed because the NCP can use it against the SPLM as violation of referendum law.

    The SPLM should have left the issue to the civil society organizations to tell the people not to vote and stay away from such public discouragement as a responsible partner in the referendum process.

    It would backfire if SPLM is seen to be breaking the referendum law by publicly telling people abroad to boycot registeration, which is by law, the right of every citizen of South Sudan.

    Reply
  • Anyang
    Anyang

    SPLM urges southern Sudanese in Uganda not to boycott voter registration
    I don,t really get it guys. I thinks the ” GoSS ” is sending a conflicting messages here, either by saying boycots today or not boycots tommorrow of registration process in Uganda and this really seem too confusing to finger-out which is which and who’s who in the face of this misinformation or misinterpertation to us.

    Reply
  • Critic_Ngueny
    Critic_Ngueny

    SPLM urges southern Sudanese in Uganda not to boycott voter registration
    Dear leaders.
    It is must that we are going to boycott registration here in Uganda due to so many reasons.We don’t want to go back to square one. IOM is behaving like an agent from Khartoum.My worry or our worry is that,they may register but they will not vote latter during voting.Who will be blamed if it happens so.Remember,stitch in time save nine.

    Critic Ngueny from Uganda and on his way to Sudan

    Reply
  • makuei
    makuei

    SPLM urges southern Sudanese in Uganda not to boycott voter registration
    In the Sunday November, 14th issue, Sudan Tribune reported that SPLM had instructed Southerners in Uganda not to register. This site even quoted e-mails sent by one Marco Duku Lomeyat who claimed to have been sent to Uganda by SPLM to spread the message.

    Today, SPLM is urging southerners in Uganda to register. Something is wrong somewhere; either there’s an error in reporting or this Marco Duku is a machine used to confuse the Referendum situation since SPLM cannot send someone around to interrupt the exercise. The name of our beloved party is being misused and this must stop.

    Raphael

    Reply
  • Haak
    Haak

    SPLM urges southern Sudanese in Uganda not to boycott voter registration
    DEAR READERS THE BELOW ARE THE OUR GRIEVANCES THAT WE FEAR

    REASONS WHY SOUTHERN SUDANESE COMMUNITY SHOULD BOYCOTT SOUTHERN SUDAN REFERENDUM EXERCISE IN UGANDA

    Southern Sudanese Community Referendum Coordination committee is a civil society organization formed by Southern Sudanese community in Uganda to coordinate the Southern Sudan referendum affairs.
    As provided for in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), the referendum on South Sudan’s independence is due to take place on 9 January 2011 with registration exercise commencing on 15 November 2010 all over Southern Sudan and eight other countries outside Sudan including Uganda.
    In its extra-ordinary southern Sudanese community’s leaders meeting held on 11 November 2010, it is unanimously resolved that Southern Sudanese community will not participate in the referendum exercise in Uganda for reasons not limited to the following:
    1. The members of Southern Sudanese community in Uganda made up of business community, students, refugees etc have expressed willingness and ability to go and register and vote inside South Sudan.

    2. That delay in the referendum process in Uganda in terms of trainings, sensitization, delivery of supportive materials is much behind schedule and that it is impossible to hold a referendum in less than two months.eg training of workers kick off on 13th -14, 11, 2010, no sensitization i.e. civic education/educators

    3. The question of eligibility of voters creates a lot of suspicions in the community since the referendum eligibility criteria empowers any person without Sudanese national identity to be registered upon backing testimony by any eligible voter. This does not adequately address the question of some communities in Uganda especially those along the border with Sudan who share common heritage such as tribes, languages, and color with those in Southern Sudan e.g Acholi, Kuku, Madi, Kwakwa etc

    4. Census for South Sudanese has never taken place in Uganda; this leaves the exercise without concrete population database, which is a critical factor in any election. Moreover, most of the members of South Sudanese community in Uganda were counted in the last Sudan’s national census of 2008 in Sudan.

    5. Insecurity of the process since this exercise will coincide with the Uganda’s general elections now ongoing.

    6. The management of the referendum process is not transparent at all since this is being done in camera with no media and involvement of Sudanese authorities at all levels. The safety of data and especially votes are at stake. Moreover the referendum registry exhibition period from 6th -13 December, 2010 which is associated with opportunity to file an objection in Sudanese court of law by any aggrieve party or eligible voter makes the suitability of participation in the exercise inside Sudan desirable.
    We the undersigned leaders being representatives of our communities in Uganda inform the public, government of Sudan and any stakeholder involved in the process of South Sudan referendum in Uganda to hold the process since southern Sudanese will not take part.

    Best wishes,
    Haakamadology-kampala-uganda

    Reply
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