The Sudanese General elections were administered by a three tire National Elections Commission (NEC), comprising officials designated to administer the elections at the national level, Southern Sudan level and the state level. The Southern Sudan High Committee (SSHC) was specifically responsible for the administration of the elections in the South and State High Committees (SHCs) were NECs arms at the state level. The NEC officiated the electoral process fairly well albeit with some challenges and omissions. Overall, both the preparations and the actual conduct of the election were characterized by lack of transparency and coordination by the NEC.
The elections were characterised by delays in communicating information about the electoral calendar, putting forth the electoral procedures, announcement of the dates for accreditation of observers/observer groups, contracting polling officials and announcing the results. These delays attest to lack of coordination and transparency on the part of NEC.
Other factors that further attest to same, and especially during the period when the election was extended are logistical and administrative shortcomings such as distribution of insufficient polling materials to polling stations, printing and distribution of an incorrect voter register, giving incorrect information on constituency boundaries in some areas, omission and/or exchange of candidate symbols on the ballot papers in some constituencies and the inability of most election officials to understand the basic procedures of administering elections.
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