Statement: Elections rigging in Warrap State
- Details
- Created on Monday, 12 April 2010 14:09
- Written by Pachodo.org News Room
The South Sudan Democratic Forum
KUAJOK, WARRAP STATE
12 April 2010
Election High Committee,
KUAJOK, Warrap State
Dear Sir,
Subject: Massive Election rigging in Warrap State
While there are serious election irregularities in most polling stations in Warrap State, the serious concern is the on going massive rigging in many polling stations. During day (11 April 2010), I visited more than twenty polling stations in Twic and Gogrial West Counties and I also received reports from greater Tonj counties. The situation during day one was as follows:
1. Arrests and prevention of Democratic Forum agents from entering polling stations:
In all polling stations of Turalei, all 120 Forum's agents were stopped, and others arrested by the security agents of the SPLM. There are no other political parties' agents in the area except the SPLM agents. This is an obvious and blatant rigging of the elections. Several attempts were made to return to normality, but the SPLM agents could not allow the candidates' and party agents. As a result of this, all the Democratic Forum candidates of Akuar and Amiol constituencies have pulled out of the election process.
2. Intimidation and threats of the voters:
Chiefs, community leaders and Elders are being threatened directly by security agents and the SPLM agents. In all the polling stations, security personnel are stationed to do the business of threats and intimidation. GoSS Special Branch and Public Security agents have been deployed. This is a serious election fraud. It is to be noted that government security agents are not responsible for election process. It is the police which is responsible. In Akoc, Tonj and and Wunrok, three senior Special Branch Staff are even made to be agents of the SPLM candidates. In fact they are responsible for causing havoc in all the stations.
3. Rigging by Polling Officers:
Polling officers, who are members of the SPLM are now the ones responsible for misleading the illiterate electorate. In the absence of other parties' agents and through the instructions of the security agents, all the ballot papers are marked in favour of the SPLM candidates. This is happening in Tonj, Wunrok, Turalei in Greater Gogrial and Romic in Greater Tonj.
4. No secret polling:
In all the polling stations in the countryside of greater Gogrial and Tonj, polling processes are done under the trees. The voter does everything from checking his name to throwing his ballot paper in open, with everybody seeing. Those voters who vote against the SPLM are noted for questioning later. This has made the electorate to be frightened.
5. Election slips:
Security agents take election slips from the chiefs and community leaders in order to direct them to vote for the SPLM. This is now occurring in Tonj South County and in Twic and Gogrial West County.
Sir,
All the points raised are very serious indeed. It needs immediate corrections so that we make the remaining two days more secure. In order to restore some order and confidence, it is important to act swiftly.
It is worth noting here that all the polling stations in the countryside of greater Tonj and Gogrial have no observers (both local and international) and adequate police to run the process of polling.
I TRUST THAT YOU WILL TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION TO RESTORE CONFIDENCE IN THE GENERAL ELECTIONS. FAILURE TO DO SO WILL MEAN THAT THE FORUM WILL DECIDE AT THE RIGHT TIME ON WHAT TO DO ON THESE RIGGED ELECTIONS IN WARRAP STATE.
Thank You for cooperation.
Yours Sincerely,
Mayom Kuoc Malek,
Minister of State for Irrigation and Water Resources, GoNU
The South Sudan Democratic Forum's Candidate for the Governor of Warrap State
Cc: All the International and Local Observers
Cc; National Election Commission, Khartoum
Cc: Southern Sudan Election Commission, Juba
Bona Malwal,
Kuajok, Capital of Warrap State,
9th April 2010.
H.E Lt. General Salva Mathok Geng,
Governor, Warrap State, Kuajok.
Dear Governor Mathok,
First of all, thank you very much for your cordial welcoming of , when I visited you in your office this morning, to complain about the elections irregularities being committed by the Commissioner of Twic County, Alfonse Anei Deng .
I want to reduce my complain to writing here, for posterity and in case I want to follow up this complain, if my request to you is not met and further elections irregularities continue to take place in Twic County against my party- The South Sudan Democratic Forum:
1.Commissioner Anei has constituted himself for the unquestionable authority in Twic County, ignoring, not the elections law and regulations, but constituting himself as the legal process for the County. As you know, I am a candidate for the National Assembly, for Twic County Geographical Constituency No. 8.
2.The first complain that brought me to your office, so early in the morning today, is that five of my elections agents were arrested in Twic County on the orders of the said Commissioner, Alfonse Anei Deng on April 7 and 8. The five elections agents have been issued with agent cards by the local elections commission in Kuajok, to be able to represent me at the polling stations. As you know too, no candidate, who has no agents at any polling station, can have any confidence in that election process. Arresting my five agents on the eve of the beginning of the 3 day polling on 11th April 2010, means that I and my Party, The South Sudan Democratic Forum, cannot have confidence in that election process. This is a terrible disservice and a blatant abuse of public power that the commission has committed.
The five agents, who remain in detention up to this time of writing, are:
a. Makuc Madut Deng Akuei
b.Adhar Gitjok Koleng
c.Majok Gitjok Koleng
d.Mabioc Deng Guot and
e.Abur Ayuel Chol
3.Chiefs, Community Leaders and Elders of Twic County are being threatened directly by the Commissioner, with dismissal, if I was elected for that seat. My own brother, who is a chief in his own right, is being perpetually summoned, almost on a daily basis, harassed and threatened with dismissal, even though his section of Ajak Kuac, has boycotted elections, for political reasons that have much to do with Commissioner Alfonse Anei Deng, who broke up my brother's local Payam into two during the division of the Elections Constituencies, in order to deny me a single undivided support of the Kuac Community.
4.My supporters, general voters, who are known to support me and my agents, are all threatened with death in the hands of the SPLM, if I was elected.
5.Our public rallies were curtailed at the beginning of the elections campaign, although such curtailment had been relaxed somewhat, in recent days. My supporters suspect that the relaxation was done, to enable the security agents of Commissioner Anei, to list at the rallies, those they intend to liquidate.
Helping Commissioner Anei in his harassment of me and my party are five young SPLM operatives in Twic County, whose names I have no cause to document here, as they are misled small people, who do not know what they are doing.
The list of my complaints is long, but the five points listed here, should suffice this petition, since what is required here is a corrective measure from you, rather than a long catalogue of grievances.
What I request of you, Mr. Governor, is to curtail Commissioner Alfonse Anei Deng, from continuing to cause havoc to the election process, upon which depends the success of our entire political and constitutional process. South Sudan, in particular, cannot afford a tarnished election process, because, from the credibility of this election, will depend the credibility of the result of the referendum on Self-determination, when the people of South Sudan exercise that right, in only less than seven months from this elections that are now being so terribly tarnished by the behavior of people like Commissioner Alfonse Anei Deng.
To restore some semblance of order and the confidence of the Twic Community in the election process, my request to your Excellency, as Governor, is to remove Commissioner Anei from any role in the elections. This is the power of the Governor, because what I am asking is purely administrative, within the powers of the Governor, in order to protect the entire election process in Twic County.
Please accept, Mr. Governor, The assurances of my best regards and respect.
Yours Sincerely,
Bona Malwal
The South Sudan Democratic Forum's
Candidate for Constituency N0. 8, Twic, for The National Assembly.
Copy to:
1.The National Election Commission, Khartoum and
2.South Sudan Election Commission, Juba
Warrap State, Twic County -Turalei, 11 April 2010.
National Election Commission, Khartoum.
Subject: Withdrawal of my Candidature for The National Parliamentary Elections, for Geographical Constituency N0. 8 Warrap State.
This is to notify you that, I, Bona Malwal Madut Ring, Candidate for the National Assembly, for the above Geographical Constituency N0. 8- Warrap State, have decided to withdraw or freeze my candidature in the on going parliamentary elections for the following reasons:
1.In Warrap State and Twic County in particular, the election there is a total farce. The Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) operatives, the so called army of South Sudan, is a tool of elections rigging by The Sudan People's Liberation Movement ( SPLM), the ruling Party in South Sudan.
The SPLM has manned, both state and the local elections committees, all over South Sudan, with its military, security and civil operatives. These SPLM personnel, have denied elections contesting candidates of other political parties of South Sudan any access to the polling stations, at least in Warrap State and particularly Twic County, where I have a first hand and up to date information about the behaviour of the SPLM/SPLA operatives.
I have been in my Constituency since Tuesday, April 6, to follow the election process first hand. My party, The South Sudan Democratic Forum, has candidates at all levels in this State, including Governor. My party has been a special target of the ruling party in the South, The Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), and its armed wing, the (SPLA), for reasons that are not too difficult to notice:
2.Since April 7, at least five of my personal elections agents have been arrested and remain in detention. All these agents are issued with elections agency cards by the local elections committee in Kuajok, the state capital, to represent me. They remain in detention until the time of writing this withdrawal notice:
The five detainees are:
1.Makuc Madut Deng Akuei
2.Adhar Gitjok Koleng
3.Majok Gitjok Koleng
4.Mabuoc Deng Guot and
5. Abur Ayuel Chol.
3.Today, on the first day of the polling in the general elections, I and my party candidates for the various levels of these elections have been denied any representation at the polling stations of Twic County of Warrap State. Our agents have been not only turned away from the polling stations to which they are assigned to represent the party candidates, but they were abused and manhandled. Two of them:
1.Marko Manyin Chol Manyin and
2.Manyin Mangok Ajing,
were subjected to a mock trial and sentenced to execution by firing squat, by a certain Deng Manyin Madut, an apparent SPLM relative of the two agents. He is said to have been angered by the fact that the two elections agents had joined the South Sudan Democratic Forum and not the SPLM. The executioner of our party's two elections agents was to be a certain Chan Goc Mabuoc, another SPLA operative.
Our two elections agents were each hand cuffed and chain tied to each other by the neck, an act that is reminisce of the old slavery era. They were then driven away from Riau Polling Station, to be executed. Luckily for our two agents, they met another kind hearted SPLA operative, relative of theirs, by the name Ajing Nyuol Chol Manyin, who released them and told them to get away by a different route, as their supposed executioners were still waylaying for them. They came directly to my home, to report this horrendous incident to me.
Throughout the first day of voting today, 11 April, I have been receiving similar reports from all over my constituency and from candidates of my party in their various electoral constituencies. The picture was the same- denial of access to the polling station; no security protection of the polling material, with the SPLA operatives ticking only the election symbols of the SPLM candidates without restrain. From our point of view and the point of view of the other parties' candidates, rigging the 2010 general elections at all levels was completed today- the first day of the polling process. I have, therefore, decided, in my own Constituency, to withdrawal my candidature, rather than give this farce of an election by the SPLM any political and legal legitimacy. The SPLM can take the empty pride of a winner in an election that it did not win legitimately, but it cannot get the privilege that it has defeated me.
There is absolutely no shame in an election defeat, but it has to be legitimate and not rigged in such a crude way as the Twic Community witnessed today from the SPLM, the first day of voting in the first multiparty elections in our country in nearly three decade.
As the rigging reports purred into my home in Turalei throughout today, 11 April 2010, I had no choice but to give all the candidates of the South Sudan Democratic Forum the freedom to each decide whether to withdraw from the elections today and tomorrow, the second day of polling. This is, so that the SPLM and its army, The SPLA, do not pretend that they have won a legitimate poll.
It appears that the decision to rig the election in my Constituency in such a crude and blatant way, was decided by the SPLM leadership from on high, sometime ago. At the beginning of this election campaign, in late March, the leader of the SPLM, Salva Kiir Mayardit, in person, came to my constituency with his entire political bureau. While campaigning by leaders of political parties in constituencies that they regard crucial, or campaign to defeat individuals like myself, whose guts they do not like is normal, getting the entire political bureau of the party out to one constituency was very unusual.
The leader of the SPLM was known to have been very close to another SPLM luminary from my constituency, late Dr. Justin Yac Arop, who died in a plane crash nearly two years ago. So close was the leader of the SPLM to the late Dr. Yac Arop, that many from the Twic community expected the leader of the SPLM to turn up for the funeral of his late friend, who died while still serving as a member of The SPLM's leader's cabinet. The SPLM leader did not show. Again, surprisingly, the leader of the SPLM led it be known, at another point, that he would attend the first annual commemoration of his late friend, Dr. Justin Yac Arop's death. He again did not turn up for the occasion, on 27 December 2008. Now, to choose the graveyard of late Justin Yac, to make a political point against me, as the political opponent of the SPLM, was a very cheap political shot, to say the least. It is now not easy to assess what support the SPLM leader achieved in the area, by performing a political requiem at the grave of his late friend, since the SPLM decided to rig the elections in my constituency and in Twic County in general, in such a blatantly crude manner.
The decision to rig the elections in all the constituencies in South Sudan, must have been made in Juba earlier on, but the executioner of yesterday's rigging in my constituency was no other than one of the senior commanders of the SPLA, the army of South Sudan. Never has a serving army commander ever gone on such an extensive election campaign as did Lt. General Pieng Deng Kuol yesterday, Saturday, in my constituency - on the eve of the beginning of polling today. General Pieng did not mince his words in campaigning against me yesterday.
Addressing the war disabled soldiers of the SPLA in Turalei, the main town centre of my constituency and the capital of Twic County, General Pieng did not mention me by name, but left no doubt in the mind of any army voter in the constituency about who he meant: " There is a big and dangerous snake here, which we must kill," he said. But this is a powerful snake and we must be careful about how we kill it".
General Pieng went on to say that the elections have been imposed by the Americans on the SPLM and that the SPLM must win these elections. The general went on to say that all the seats must be won by the SPLM. He then went on a tour of a show of force in my constituency, parading nearly thirty military trucks in the entire stretch of my constituency. No wonder, the SPLA army was out in the constituency today, lynching and manhandling citizens on the first day of polling.
Efforts to rig my constituency have been long coming. Some of it is known to the National Election Commission itself. The first decision by the election commission in my constituency earlier seems to have been a deliberate appeasement of the SPLM by the election commission. At the time of constituency demarcation, the national election commission made an inexcusable mistake- indeed a mistake that such a legally learned commission should never have made. One chieftainship of my constituency, which happens to be my family ruled section of the constituency, was annexed to Abyei, to form a separate constituency. Everyone knows that Abyei is part of Southern Kordofan and should remain as such until next year, when it will vote to join South Sudan.
Under the CPA, Abyei has a separate protocol. That protocol provides that Abyei's political representation in Kordofan, in Northern Sudan and in Warrap State of South Sudan, will be decided by the Presidency of the republic and not by the elections commission. The elections law further provides that no territorial constituency should overlap the borders of two states, particularly states of South and North Sudan. How come then, the elections commission allowed my constituency to overlap Abyei and Twic, annexing parts of Abyei in Northern Sudan, to Twic in South Sudan? Both protocols of the CPA are so clear on this. When the citizens of Twic challenged this kind of constituency, the elections commission over ruled them, in what is so clearly an illegal ruling. It would seem that the election commission, by their ruling, had encouraged the rigging of the elections in my constituency. Now, the SPLM, as a party and its army, the SPLA, have perfected the rigging of this constituency, where no elections monitor, local or international, has set foot.
Bona Malwal,
Turalei, Sunday, 11 April 2010
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Bona Malwal, should have been arrested or to make it a little mild he should have been eliminated. This dinosaur have derailed south Sudanese aspiration for dignity and freedom, he is ready to sell his mother for his own selfish ego. He had a hand in: you know what I mean William Deng, he manipulated all force of evil to bring down the father of all liberation Dr John Garang . He throw a big party when Dr John Garang, departed this world. He will go down miserable in the chapter of history, so I don’t know what business this Pachoho web sit have with traitors like uncle Bona. Lam Arop, is a intelligent man and he should distance himself from those sell out Politian’s