The late Chairman of Southern Sudan High Elections Commission Caesar Arkangelo Suliman. [© Gurtong]
By Juma John Stephen
JUBA, 11 May 2010 (Gurtong) - The Chairman of Southern Sudan High Elections Commission (SSHEC) Caesar Arkangelo Suliman is dead.
Arkangelo, 75, passed on yesterday afternoon at a Khartoum hospital where he was undergoing treatment for kidney complications.
“We in Southern Sudan High Elections Committee regret the untimely death of our leader Caesar Arkangelo Suliman who died on the 10th-05 2010. The late Arkangelo was appointed with the rest of SSHEC members in June 2009 to manage the election process in South Sudan. While he was with the committee he got sick and he was referred to Jordan for medical treatment in early February 2010 and returned to Khartoum in April 2010 and was advised to continue with a medical check while in Khartoum”, the Deputy Chairman of SSHEC Anthony Ariki Lowly told Gurtong in his office today.
“I spoke to him a week ago and his voice was not so usual and that showed me that his situation was deteriorating”, said Ariki.
Ariki said South Sudan has lost a wise and cooperative leader, who showed exceptional patriotism, especially during the pre-election period.
Arkangelo was instrumental in the Sudan voter registration exercise conducted late last year but was conspicuously absent during the just-concluded general elections.
The late Arkangelo was also the chairman of Southern Sudan Local Government Board.
His body is set to be flown today to his rural home in Wau, Western Bahr el Ghazal State for burial.