JUBA, Sudan, April 11 (Xinhua) -- The Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) on Sunday asked for an extension of the three days of polling of the general elections in southern Sudan for administrative difficulties, a senior official of the former rebel movement in southern Sudan told reporters.

Susan Jambo, a senior official responsible for the SPLM election campaigns, told Xinhua in Juba, the capital of the semi- autonomous southern Sudan, that the SPLM had asked the National Elections Commission (NEC) for the extension without specifying the time it needed, denying earlier reports by foreign media that the SPLM was seeking a four-day prolongation of the elections.

"We have noticed a lot of mistakes since the polling process started on Sunday morning, including that names of candidates were wrongly printed on the ballots, and we need more time to correct these mistakes," the SPLM official noted.

"We have not specified a certain period, but the SPLM will study this matter to see how much time is needed," she added.

The first day of the polling process in south Sudan witnessed complaints on the part of many voters due to the confusing start and the administrative and technical mistakes.

James Wani Igga, candidate of the first constituency for southern Sudan parliament and a leading member of the SPLM, criticized what he termed as mismanagement and failure in organization, saying that "the national elections commission in south Sudan has made many mistakes due to mismanagement and absence of organization."

About 4 million registered southern Sudanese voters are casting their votes in the first multi-party elections in Sudan since 1986.

The southern Sudanese voters have to cast 12 ballots, which prompts concerns due to spread of illiteracy in the region which had suffered about two decades of civil war.

Meanwhile, the NEC acknowledged in a statement issued in Khartoum that there were administrative mistakes committed during the first day of the voting process, planned to last for three days.

"Administrative and technical mistakes have accompanied the distribution of the ballots in 26 out of 821 polling stations in Khartoum State," said the NEC in a statement issued in Khartoum.

The statement added that the NEC was planning to increase the polling hours at the centers where the mistakes occurred during the coming polling days.

Sudanese voters on Sunday started casting their votes to select their representatives for the presidency, state governors, president of southern Sudan and legislative councils.