Nov 16, 2009

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's opposition parties on Monday called for a nationwide two-week extension to register voters for the first multi-party elections in 24 years, accusing elections officials of being ill-prepared for the vote.

The former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and 20 opposition parties said an information black out and last-minute preparations by the election commission was preventing Sudanese from registering to vote.

"We are asking the National Elections Commission to extend the registration period for two weeks," Abdel Gayoum Awad from the Sudanese Congress Party said in a joint news conference.

The SPLM signed north-south peace deal in 2005 ending more than two decades of civil war. But delays in implementing the deal have raised tensions with less than five months until the multi-party elections which will be followed by a referendum on southern independence in 2011.

The opposition parties have previously said they would boycott the elections if a package of democratic laws they see as necessary for the vote was not drafted and passed by November 30.

And on Monday they accused President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's National Congress Party (NCP) of widespread registration fraud.

The NCP has denied any irregularities and accused the SPLM of arresting its members in the semi-autonomous south.

Many Sudanese have said that NCP officials have either taken their registration slips or recorded the numbers, as well as calling with offers to buy their votes.