2009-11-23
(Xinhua) -- Sudan's National Elections Commission (NEC) on Sunday decided to delay the voting date from April 5 to April 11, 2010, the official Sudan News Agency reported.

According to the report, the delay is to give another week to the voters' registration period, which will end on Dec. 7, and by ruling that registration offices should remain open during the Eidal-Adha holiday from next Thursday to Sunday.

The report said that the NEC reviewed in its meeting remarks of the Sudanese political parties regarding the declared time table for the voters' registration, and after evaluating the registration results together with the difficulties some areas faced, the NEC decided to extend the registration period.

"The extension of the registration period necessitated the delay of the voting date," the report said.

The NEC hoped that after that procedure, the citizens would rush to exercise their rights of registration, and called on political parties and civil society forces to urge citizens to register, according to the report.

Some Sudanese political parties, including the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, demanded extension of the voters' registration period, arguing that the period was not enough for the registration of the voters.

The staging of a general election in 2010 was one of the key chapters of a peace deal struck in 2005 to end a 22-year civil war between Sudan's southern region and the Khartoum government in which two million people died.