At a press briefing earlier today Ambassador Susan Rice discussed Sudan’s upcoming elections, telling reporters that the circumstances on the ground were “quite disturbing.”
Here is an excerpt of today’s briefing:
Ambassador Rice: Good morning everyone.
I just want to say a few words about the briefing that we received today from Undersecretary-General Le Roy about the electoral process in Sudan. He gave a very comprehensive and detailed summary of the circumstances on the ground, much of which we find quite disturbing.
He underscored and reinforced what have been our longstanding concerns about serious government restrictions on political freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of association, the opportunity for all political actors to campaign without impediment, harassment of the media, limitations on access to polling stations for many of the people of Sudan, in particular in Darfur as we have highlighted in the past, large segments of the population, particularly the internally displaced population will not have the opportunity to participate in this polling process. And indeed, the decision by the European Union to withdraw its observers, announced yesterday, from Darfur underscores just how insecure and problematic the electoral process is in that portion of the country, as well as elsewhere.
We are going to remain focused on this. We had seen these elections as many did, as meant to be an important milestone in the implementation of the CPA. Unfortunately, the trends on the ground are very disturbing, and we will and we are judging these elections on the basis of whether they provide an opportunity for the people of Sudan to fully and adequately express their political will, and whether they meet international standards and regrettably, the trends in this regard are not encouraging.
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Reporter: Scott Gration has said that he thought the elections would be as free and fair as possible, can you explain, I guess, what that means, whether that is being kind of retracted in light of what you said? Do you think that the UN, both UNAMID and UNMIS should be more, they said very little about as these events are taking place at least publically, what is their role for trying to secure a free and fair election without incident?
Ambassador Rice: Well I think, as we heard from Undersecretary-General Le Roy, UNMIS is playing an important role in trying to support both logistically and from a security point-of-view, preparations for the elections. The primary responsibility, however, for the conduct of these elections lies with the government and the national electoral commission and indeed the parties themselves. So, UNMIS is playing a supporting role.
With respect to the characterization of the elections, I think as we heard from Undersecretary-General Le Roy this morning, and as we have said repeatedly at this mike and various other places, the trends are not encouraging. There have been some significant impediments on the ground, restrictions on civil liberties, harassment of the media, reduction in the number of polling places, insecurity, an inability, of many of the people, particularly in Darfur, to be able to register and participate. So, we have overtime expressed our concerns, those concerns are mounting as the election approaches, and we are certainly underscoring the importance of steps being taken immediately to try to mitigate, to the greatest extent possible, in the time that remains, these very serious infringements on free political activity.
Reporter: Should there be a delay?
Ambassador Rice: I think our view has been that if a very brief delay were decided to be necessary, and we thought that a brief delay would enable the process to be more credible, we would be prepared to entertain that. That’s obviously up to the authorities themselves, but the larger picture is that much is awry in this process, and that is a real concern.
Thank you.
The opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Save Darfur Coalition.
Tags: Elections, Obama Administration, Susan Rice, United Nations
