20100420
sabc

Nozintombi Miya

The key focus on the third day of the Common Wealth Broadcasting (CBA) conference today was “delivering quality local content and dealing with people's issues, should be the cornerstone of any public broadcaster."

Delegates attending the conference stressed the importance of regularly reviewing services provided by public broadcasters to the public. However a sharper focus on telling the human story was needed., and it was emphasised that it was also crucial to provide a platform for ordinary people to listen, assess and discuss topical issues.

SABC Head of News Phil Molefe said that one of the key lessons was for newsroom people to allow their services to become a public space - to allow the public to participate in the exchange of news and for more ordinary voices to be heard.

Mark Scott, MD of Australia's public broadcaster ABC stressed the need for positive change and for public broadcasters to also innovate in the arena of social networks and other new media . He also suggested governments contribute to public broadcasters funding models, to help sustain them.

“I think what’s important in the Australian context; even if we are funded by government, is we belong to the Australian people - they are our shareholders and our boss”. Scott added.

Around two hundred international delegates are at the conference, which ends tomorrow.

20100420
sabc

Minister for the Public Service and Administration Richard Baloyi has called on labour movements to refrain from strikes and find solutions through engagements. Baloyi was speaking to the media in Pretoria, ahead of his budget vote in Parliament tomorrow.

The minister's call comes with the municipal strike in its eighth day and no clear sign of it ending. Talks are to begin in the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council in the next few days. Baloyi says this must be seen as the beginning of negotiations season and not strike season.

Meanwhile, rubbish continues to pile up in the streets of Johannesburg as the strike by thousands of municipal workers enters its eighth day today. Workers’ union, the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) and employer body South African Local Government Association (Salga) are at loggerheads over a demand for market-related salaries.

Hopes for an end to the municipal workers' strike have been dashed again. Salga and Samwu have been in and out of meetings since the strike began last week. There were hopes that the industrial action could end by yesterday. However, there is still no agreement reached. The union says there in only one sticking point: “We are calling for two years pay back for our members. Salga have not conceded to this demand at this moment in time,” says Samwu spokesperson Tahir Sema.

The strike has been marred by incidents of vandalism in Johannesburg. The two parties are again scheduled to meet with the bargaining committee this afternoon.

20100420
sabc

Sherwin Bryce-Pease, Washington

South Africa's Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana says employment creation should be at the centre of all the G20 economies. The minister is in Washington to participate in the first meeting of the group's labour ministers, usually the exclusive terrain of finance ministers and presidents.

The labour group is currently in a closed session examining the economic downturn and the direct impact it has had on employment, and which national responses to the crisis worked best.

No prize for guessing what the main issue is at the gathering - with South Africa's official unemployment at around 24% the pressure is on to find innovative ways to bring that number down fast.

"I have always said that if we do not get these people into the labour market, then we are sitting on a time bomb and it is ticking - sooner than later it is going to explode in our faces," says Minister Mdladlana.

The meeting will look at interventions and results, issues of quality job creation, preservation and safety nets in times of crisis. The South African government is scratching its head on what do with workers post the World Cup.

South Africa's contribution today will be a presentation on its expanded public works programme and how that has brought short term relief to the unemployed.

20100420
sabc

President Jacob Zuma says as the OR Tambo International Airport opens its new central terminal building, South Africans should pay tribute to the late struggle hero that the airport has been named after.

Zuma was speaking at the official opening of the airport's central terminal building earlier today. The Airport Company South Africa (Acsa) spent over R2 billion to upgrade the airport - making it the biggest port of entry in the country. President Zuma says in line with Tambo's legacy, South Africans should embrace their hosting of the FIFA World Cup.

"President Oliver Tambo taught us to embrace the world outside our immediate precincts. Oliver Tambo was a true international statesman with the highest regard for the values of humanity, dignity and compassion. With the name change we sought not only to immortalise president Tambo but also to celebrate his sacrifice and commitment to the universal values of equality and freedom," says Zuma.

Meanwhile, a South African Airways (SAA) flight to London expected to have left this morning was delayed again until further notice due to the volcanic ash crisis, the carrier said.

"SAA is monitoring the situation in conjunction with European Air Traffic and will resume operations between South Africa and the United Kingdom as soon as conditions are deemed safe for air travel," a statement read.

Passengers had been stranded since last Thursday due to the volcanic ash cloud moving over Europe and the UK from Iceland. – Additional reporting by Sapa

20100420
sabc

Thousands of airline passengers are finally heading home tonight. Flight operations have resumed in most of Europe, after a five-day shutdown caused by Icelandic volcanic ash. But many airports remain closed as a new ash cloud moves in. Hundreds of tourists are still trapped at OR Tambo Airport in Johannesburg.

The early signs were encouraging but, like the cloud itself, the flight schedule was patchy. For many it was another day of dashed hopes. One British tourist was consoled by the President Jacob Zuma when he came to open a new terminal there.

South African Airways (SAA) got as far as issuing boarding passes for a flight to Heathrow - only to have to cancel it.
SAA has 10 000 stranded customers - half of them are at airports overseas. So far, the delays have cost airlines world wide over a $1-billion.
Meanwhile, policymakers and markets trying to react to the volcanic gas cloud paralysing air travel in Europe face a host of variables, unknowns and hard-to-measure risks that make modeling almost impossible.

No one can accurately predict what the volcano - or its larger neighbour, which might also erupt soon, will do.
Short-term weather forecasts might be good but long-term weather forecasting is a notoriously inexact science. Worst of all, no one can categorically say how much ash is dangerous to aircraft.

Predicting accurately the economic and market impact is not much easier. Businesses and consumers are in unknown territory and no one knows quite how they will react or what methods they may find to get around the flight restrictions and reach their destinations safely . – additional reporting by Reuters

20100420
sabc

The country’s traditional leaders have received a sympathetic ear, and President Jacob Zuma says they will be afforded an opportunity to play a role in improving people's lives. He was speaking at the National House of Traditional Leaders in Pretoria today.

The issue at the meeting, attended by most of the country's royalty, was their role in developing communities under their rule. Budgets, poor relations with municipalities and consultation issues featured prominently.

"We cannot establish structures like houses of traditional leaders and traditional councils and expect them to render effective services to communities. I have instructed the Minister of Co-operative governance to assess the capacity of provinces to support traditional leadership," says Zuma.

Zuma said lack of co-operation between traditional councils and municipalities was a cause for concern. He said the government could not afford to overlook such an important matter.

He called for an urgent summit involving traditional councils and municipalities.

20100420
press tv

The unrelenting Somali pirates have hijacked three Thai fishing vessels with 77 crew members over the weekend, raising fears over the expansion of their territory.

The spokesman for the EU anti-piracy naval force to Somalia, Commander John Harbour, confirmed the hijackings for Press TV on Tuesday.

“This was in the Indian Ocean but far away from the east coast of Africa…This is the farthest hijacking to date. They are now operating near the Maldives and India,” said Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the Kenya-base maritime watchdog, East African Seafarers' Assistance Program.

The three ships — named Prantalay 11, 12 and 14 — belong to a Thai-based company, PT Interfishery Ltd. The pirate-held vessels were reportedly heading towards the Somali coast.

The Thai crew members are believed to be in good health.

The naval mission patrolling the area since December 2008 has failed to stop the spread of piracy in one of the world's most important trade routes.

The bold sea bandits are now launching more and more attacks south to the Seychelles and farther out towards India as piracy has turned into a lucrative business with cash ransoms worth millions of dollars.

According to the International Maritime Bureau, Somali pirates were responsible for more than half of the reported global piracy attempts in 2009, and nearly all of the hijackings, with 47 successful captures.

20100420
aljazeera

The ruling party of Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the Sudanese president, and the largest party in the semi-autonomous south have agreed to accept the results of last week's elections.

Ballots are still being counted from the country's first multi-party polls in 24 years and the results, originally expected on Tuesday, have been delayed indefinitely.

But, despite the uncertainty over the counts, Ali Osman Taha, Sudan's second vice-president, said that his National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) had agreed to any rulings on the results.

"We agreed to accept the results as announced by the National Election Commission and to respect the decisions of the National Election Commission," Taha said after talks with Salva Kiir, the SPLM leader.

"We agreed to maintain an atmosphere of peace, as was the case during the election.

The SPLM, which dominates politics in the south of the country, on Monday accused the predominantly-northern NCP of preparing to rig the elections in Blue Nile state, which lies on the border between the two halves of the country.

Polling irregularities

Other parties have also accused the government of irregularities in polling and withdrew from some of the presidential, parliamentary and local ballots in protest before polling took place.

The withdrawals left Bashir almost certain of retaining the presidency and after the first day of counting of the legislative election ballots it became clear that his NCP would dominate parliament

Those early results prompted several opposition parties to accuse the ruling party used state resources to fiddle with ballot boxes over the five-day voting period.

The NCP has rejected the claims.

The United States has also said that the election process was plagued by "serious irregularities

"The United States regrets that Sudan's National Elections Commission did not do more to prevent and address such problems prior to voting," the White House said in a statement.

It said that the US was committed to helping ensure a 2011 referendum on southern independence was conducted fairly.

The NCP and SPLM serve in a power-sharing government that agreed as part of a deal signed in 2005 to end a bloody civil war. Part of that deal also set up next year's vote on whether the south should secede.

At the meeting between Taha and Kiir, the two parties agreed to speed up the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, "particularly the issue of border demarcation," Taha said.

2010420
aljazeera

The ruling party of Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the Sudanese president, and the largest party in the semi-autonomous south have agreed to accept the results of last week's elections.

Ballots are still being counted from the country's first multi-party polls in 24 years and the results, originally expected on Tuesday, have been delayed indefinitely.

But, despite the uncertainty over the counts, Ali Osman Taha, Sudan's second vice-president, said that his National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) had agreed to any rulings on the results.

"We agreed to accept the results as announced by the National Election Commission and to respect the decisions of the National Election Commission," Taha said after talks with Salva Kiir, the SPLM leader.

"We agreed to maintain an atmosphere of peace, as was the case during the election.

The SPLM, which dominates politics in the south of the country, on Monday accused the predominantly-northern NCP of preparing to rig the elections in Blue Nile state, which lies on the border between the two halves of the country.

Polling irregularities

Other parties have also accused the government of irregularities in polling and withdrew from some of the presidential, parliamentary and local ballots in protest before polling took place.

The withdrawals left Bashir almost certain of retaining the presidency and after the first day of counting of the legislative election ballots it became clear that his NCP would dominate parliament

afrol News, 20 April

The government of South Africa says it will speed up the empowerment of its black majority population into mining ownership and try to meet its twenty-six percent ownership quota by 2014.

South African Minister of Mineral Resources, Susan Shabangu is optimistic that despite past failures, government was moving forward and in the process to endorse the new policy aimed at transforming and balancing the race ownership of the South African mining sector.

The country has recently commissioned a major review of the Mining Charter signed about five years ago - which requires mining companies to sell a portion of their ownership to black people and other previously disadvantaged groups.

The implementation of the charter was however found to have been inefficient, with the current figures suggesting that government has only managed to help the acquisition of less 10 percent of the mining sector for the black citizens.

The commissioning of the review of the mining charter also came amidst fears of the government's agenda of nationalising the country's mines, fuelled by the debates created by the ruling ANC party's controversial youth league leader, Julius Malema.

However, Mr Malema's arguments were watered down by South Africa's President Jacob Zuma, who dismissed them as a mere debate in an open democratic South Africa and nothing even in the pipeline of government policy formulation.

In the new strategy to fast-track transformation in the mining sector, Ms Shabangu has said government would endorse some changes in the mining charter to enhance implementation of the policy as well as compliance by the sector players.

South Africa, which is Africa's largest economy, has one of the world's largest and most complex mining sectors with precious metals such as platinum, gold and precious stones fetching the bulk of the country's wealth.

afrol News, 20 April

Efforts to get Zimbabwe a new constitution that speaks the same language as its people could be saved by the donation by the European Union to fund its draft.

The EU announced today it had given € 6 million (US$ 8.1 million) to the Southern African state to help fund a programme to draft a new constitution meant to pave the way for fresh elections.

The unity government in Zimbabwe, formed last year in February, has come across hectic hurdles, which some have been blamed on the quietness of the constitution.

Under the unity government deal, fresh elections can only be held once the new charter has been thoroughly reviewed by the Zimbabwean public and adopted as a national tool of unity through a referendum.

The unity government had recently said there was lack of financing for the constitutional review tour of the nation as well as consultations.

"In order for the project to move forward, we are therefore pleased to grant our approval to the first quarterly work plan which amounts to euro six million," Xavier Marchal, EU head of country delegation, said in a letter to Zimbabwean ministers.

He also said the EU has noted that the government of Zimbabwe has pledged its contribution toward the project to an amount of US$ 2,338,496.

Zimbabwe last went for general elections in 2008 when the opposition withdrew for the second round because of widespread violence and intimidation by the then sole ruling ZANU-PF party of Robert Mugabe.

Opposition leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara however signed into the unity government deal, which has not really been able to make a break-through at government and political level, except that there is relative stability in Zimbabwe today and that the economy is recovering.

20100420
africanews

Djibouti's lawmakers on Monday approved a constitution amendment allowing President Ismail Omar Guelleh to run for a third term. The 59 MPs spent over an hour reviewing the constitution and pruned down the presidential mandate from six to five years.

"The procedure is that the bill should be adopted at its first reading by the Assembly," the speaker of the National Assembly, Idriss Arnaoud Ali, told AFP.

"Thereafter the president of the republic can either decide to hold a referendum to validate the constitutional amendment or he can ask members of parliament to examine the law a second time, in which case it must be passed by two thirds of them.

"It is the population who have repeatedly demonstrated in favour of this amendment and we received a mountain of petitions where the people wanted the president to be able to continue with the reforms he launched, notably the fight against poverty and the development of the energy sector," Arnaoud said.

The amendment was passed by 59 MPs in the 63-seat parliament; four MPs were absent.

Guelleh’s followers gathered in the capital and supported the amendment.

"We received a mountain of petitions where the people wanted the president to be able to continue with the reforms he launched, notably the fight against poverty and the development of the energy sector," Arnaoud said.

Djibouti, a former French colony, is a major strategic importance in the Horn of Africa and also hosts France's largest military base in Africa and a major U.S. base.

Foreign navies patrolling busy shipping lanes off the coast of Somalia also use Djibouti’s port.

20100420
africagoodnews

Rwanda's telecom industry will get a boost with the country's latest fibre optic network transmitting large bandwidth from capital Kigali to Gatuna border, through Uganda, Kenya and the East African coast.

Patrick Nyirishema, Deputy CEO-IT, Rwanda Development Board, said that the cable had reached the border at Gatuna and is ready to be leased to telecom companies, writes the East African Business Week publication. Operators in the country will be also able to link their existing fibre optic infrastructure with the pipe, to provide more affordable and reliable telecom services in Rwanda.

The country currently relies on microwave-based connectivity, which can degrade in bad weather conditions. To date, Rwandatel has spent US$200,000 monthly on hiring microwave technology, but the company has now embarked on acquiring fibre optic capacity, having also bought broadband capacity from SEACOM.

20100420
africagoodnews

Substantial investment in malaria control has helped fuel major progress in the drive to roll back the disease across Africa but more funding is needed, according to a report released Monday.

"Progress in Africa is on an upward and accelerated trajectory," according to "The World Malaria Day 2010: Africa Update," a joint report by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership.

It notably pointed to a ten-fold hike in global malaria funding from external sources to roughly two billion dollars by the end of 2009 compared with 2004 and a five-fold increase in global production of insecticide-treated mosquito nets (ITNs) to 150 million.

But the study said external aid in malaria funding "still falls short of the estimated six billion dollars needed in 2010 alone for global implementation of malaria interventions."

The vast majority of malaria deaths occur in Africa, south of the Sahara and the disease has been estimated to cost the continent more than 12 billion dollars every year in lost gross domestic product (GDP), even though it could be controlled for a fraction of that sum.

"Investment in malaria control is saving lives and reaping far-reaching benefits for countries. But without sustained and predictable funding, the significant contribution of malaria control toward the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) could be reversed," said Dr Coll Seck, RBM Partnership executive director.

"More remains to be done as children and pregnant women are still dying of this preventable and treatable disease, especially in Africa," said outgoing UNICEF executive director Ann Veneman.

RBM, a public-private partnership founded by UNICEF, the World Health Organization, the World Bank and the UN Development Agency, provides policy guidance as well as financial and technical backing for control efforts in malaria-hit countries.

Malaria control, key to achieving many of the poverty-reduction MDGs by the 2015 deadline, relies on prevention through the use of ITNs and indoor residual spraying as well as intermittent preventive treatment during pregnancy through the use of at least two doses of an effective antimalarial drug during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy.

Recommended treatment involves the use of Artemisinin-based combination therapy.

With the "Decade to Roll Back Malaria" set to close by year's end, the report said Eritrea, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea's Bioko island, Gambia, Ghana, Zambia, the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar and Sao Tome and Principe "have scaled up malaria interventions and have observed marked reduction (30-95 percent) in morbidity and mortality indicators."

20100420
New Ziana.

Western diplomats accredited to Zimbabwe have commended the unity the nation displayed during celebrations to mark the 30th Independence anniversary on Sunday, saying such unity was crucial for economic turnaround.

Thousands of Zimbabweans from across the political divide thronged the National Sports Stadium on Sunday for the celebrations.

Swedish Ambassador Sten Rylander said: "The coming together of all the people is a good situation."

Canadian Ambassador Barbara Richardson said Zimbabweans had to reflect and map out a strategy for the next 30 years.

Norwegian Ambassador Gunnar Foreland said he hoped the anniversary would usher in an era of vibrancy for Zimbabwe.

"On our side we are looking at all possibilities to ensure that we fully re-engage."

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton congratulated Zimbabwe on its milestone.

Meanwhile, South Africa’s Ambassador in Harare, Professor Mulungisi Makhalima, said the 30-year anniversary was a major achievement and expressed optimism that Zimbabwe would regain its past glory and stature.

A number of Western countries imposed illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe as part of their regime change agenda. — New Ziana.

20100420
Herald Reporter

A new threat has emerged to the immediate resumption of Zimbabwe-European Union re-engagement talks and this time it is not disagreements among the parties involved, but a force of nature.

A cloud of volcanic ash following the eruption of Mt Eyjafjoell in Iceland last week has covered Northern European skies and grounded airlines, scuppering the inter-ministerial team’s travel plans.

Zimbabwe’s inter-ministerial team was supposed to leave for Brussels, Belgium, for the resumption of re-engagement talks but had to postpone the trip because of the freeze on air transportation.

Earlier in the day, delegation leader Economic Planning and Investment Promotion Minister Elton Mangoma had been hopeful they would manage to fly but those plans had to be temporarily put on the backburner.

Other members of the team are Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa and his Regional Integration and International Co-operation counterpart Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga.

Late yesterday afternoon, Minister Misihaira-bwi-Mushonga said their flight had been terminated due to the volcanic ash cloud.

"The trip has been cancelled and right now it has been rescheduled for tomorrow (today) but we don’t know if we will make it to Europe," she said.

She confirmed that the Zimbabwe team had agreed on a common position on the issue of sanctions, as reported in The Herald last week.

"The purpose of the dialogue is for us to have a common ground on how sanctions may be removed.

"We want these sanctions to be lifted to pave way for speedy economic recovery," Minister Misihairabwi-Mushonga said.

She said the delegation was hoping for a positive result from the meetings.

Minister Mangoma, however, refused to disclose the agenda of the talks.

It is understood that the Zimbabwean team will meet with EU foreign policy chief Lady Ashton of Britain.

A Foreign Ministry source privy to the agenda said: "The EU has its benchmarks for the dialogue but at the moment the discussion will focus on ways sanctions will be lifted.

"It should be understood that sanctions are one of the sticking issues threatening the survival of the inclusive Government and full implementation of the Global Political Agreement."

The talks have faced a number of hiccups since they started in June last year.

Twice, Minister Chinamasa has faced difficulties in getting a Belgian visa from the French Embassy in Harare.

The French Embassy is responsible for issuance of Belgian visas in Zimbabwe.

Minister Chinamasa was also detained at Frankfurt International Airport in Germany in what observers construed to be a thinly veiled bid to ensure he would not get to the talks venue on time.

The EU and the United States have imposed illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe, which have been blamed for plunging the country into socio-economic turmoil.

A 2006 study by the EU admitted that the sanctions were imposed in a bid to influence the 2002 presidential elections won by President Mugabe.

Critics of the widely discredited embargo have long pointed out that the sanctions were instituted to effect regime change in Zimbabwe.

NAIROBI, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Somali pirates are holding three Thai fishing ships and 77 crew members on board off the Somali coast after hijacking the vessels on Sunday, a regional maritime official and EU Naval Force confirmed on Tuesday.

Andrew Mwangura, East Africa Coordinator of Seafarers Assistance Program (SAP) said the pirates hijacked MV Prantalay 11, 12, and 14 with 77 crew members onboard in one of the farthest-off- shore attacks to date.

"The three fishing vessels were hijacked on Sunday and all have 77 Thai crew onboard," Mwangura told Xinhua by telephone from Mombasa.

EU Naval Force Commander John Harbour also confirmed the seizure, saying the three Thai vessels were attacked almost 600 miles (960 km) outside the normal operation area for the EU Naval Force. "These latest hijackings are the furthest east of any pirate attacks in the area since the start of EU NAVFOR's Operation Atalanta in December 2008, almost 600 miles outside the normal EU NAVFOR operating area," Harbour said.

He said the attack so far out at sea was a clear indication that the EU, NATO and CMF were having a marked effect on pirate activity in the area.

Harbour said the MV Prantalay 11 has 26 Thai crew members, MV Prantalay 12 has 25 and MV Prantalay 14 has 26 on board.

He also said the hijacked vessels belong to a Thai based company PT Interfishery Ltd. He confirmed that all 77 Thai crew members were safe and well and that the vessels were heading towards the Somali coast.

Harbour said pirates have expanded their range south and east in response to an increase in patrols by European and U.S. warships off the Somali shore.

Piracy has become rampant off the coast of Africa, especially in the waters near Somalia, which has been without an effective government since 1991.

Ransoms started out in tens of thousands of dollars and have since climbed into millions.

The Horn of Africa nation is at the entrance to the Gulf of Aden, which leads to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, one of the world's most important shipping channels.About 25,000 ships use the channel south of Yemen, between the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea.

2010-04-20
ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's acting president urged parliament to pass two financial crimes bills within the next two months, warning that failure to do so could impact foreign investment in sub-Saharan Africa's second-biggest economy.

Acting President Goodluck Jonathan said he feared the international Financial Action Task Force (FATF), comprising governments and regional organisations, would add Nigeria to its blacklist if it did not pass anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism legislation by June 30.

The Paris-based body has blacklisted Iran, Angola, North Korea, Ecuador and Ethiopia in February for posing risks to the global financial system.

In a letter to the House of Representatives, Jonathan said Nigeria faced "grave economic and political consequences" if the FATF decided to implement sanctions on the OPEC member.

"Some countries will not honour international financial instruments emanating from Nigeria, including letters of credit," said the letter, which was read to the lower house of parliament on Tuesday.

"International investors will be scared to invest in Nigeria and those willing to do so will request for the most stringent conditions," it added.

The two bills aim to close gaps in Nigeria's fight against money-laundering and terrorism by providing anti-corruption police with greater authority to prosecute criminals.

Anti-terrorism legislation has assumed greater urgency since a Nigerian man was arrested after trying to bring down an airliner over Detroit last December with explosives concealed in his underwear.

Ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua, who suffered a heart ailment and has not been seen in public since November, had committed Nigeria to implementing the legislation by the end of 2009. But neither houses of parliament have approved the bill.

Jonathan, who assumed executive powers in Yar'Adua's absence, said Nigeria's international image would be "highly dented" if the legislation does not pass in time.

But the two bills will need to fight for attention among a huge backlog of reform legislation in parliament, ranging from the oil sector to banking and the electoral system.

2010-04-20
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House charged on Tuesday that Sudan's national elections were plagued by "serious irregularities" and said it was committed to helping ensure a 2011 referendum on southern Sudanese independence was conducted fairly.

Early results from the election, the oil-producing nation's first in 24 years, suggest President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and his party are headed for a strong win in presidential and parliamentary polls marred by boycotts and alleged fraud.

Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague to face charges of war crimes in the Darfur region.

Much of the opposition boycotted the proceedings before voting started, citing irregularities, and observers have already said the elections did not meet international standards.

"Political rights and freedoms were circumscribed throughout the electoral process, there were reports of intimidation and threats of violence in South Sudan, ongoing conflict in Darfur did not permit an environment conducive to acceptable elections, and inadequacies in technical preparations for the vote resulted in serious irregularities," the White House said in a statement.

"The United States regrets that Sudan's National Elections Commission did not do more to prevent and address such problems prior to voting," it said.

Bashir had hoped an election victory would legitimize his government in defiance of the international arrest warrant. He denies the war crimes charges.

The U.S. State Department said on Monday Sudan's elections were neither free nor fair but it would deal with the victors to try to settle internal disputes before a 2011 referendum that could bring independence to southern Sudan.

"The elections held recently in Sudan were an essential step in a process laid out by Sudan's Comprehensive Peace Agreement," the White House said, citing a deal designed to end a 22-year civil war between the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum in Sudan's mostly Muslim north and the largely Christian and animist south.

That 2005 agreement gave the south autonomy, a share of oil revenues and a route to independence via referendum by January 2011.

"In the months and years ahead it will be critical to continue pressing for progress for the civil and political rights of all of the Sudanese people," the White House said.

"The United States also remains committed to working with the international community ... ensure that the referendum happens on time and that its results are respected,"

2010-04-20
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - A video appearing to show elections officials stuffing ballot boxes in Sudan has been posted on the Internet and the opposition said on Tuesday it proved their case that the ruling party had rigged the polls.

The National Elections Commission dismissed the video as a fake and said it had received no complaints.

Official results have been delayed but so far indicate a landslide victory for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and his party's candidates by massive margins in the national elections which were supposed to transform the oil producer emerging from decades of civil war into a democracy.

The video, entitled "Sudan's elections debacle in the Red Sea state" appears to show elections officials, in regulation orange vests and traditional eastern Sudanese clothes, stuffing ballots into boxes locked with distinctive orange seals.

Red Sea state is in Sudan's under-developed east, home to the country's only port and oil export pipeline.

There are no party agents or observers shown in the room. Parties in the east of Africa's largest country have said their representatives were expelled from monitoring during and after the voting.

The National Elections Commission said it would not investigate the video.

"We will not do any investigation because we have not got a complaint. We will not investigate anything that appears on the internet," NEC member al-Hadi Mohamed Ahmed told reporters.

Much of the opposition had boycotted the polls, citing widespread fraud before the voting even began. Those participating rejected the polls after the first day of counting when it became apparent they had won next to nothing and Bashir's National Congress Party had won by massive margins.

They said the NCP, which has ruled for 21 years after taking power in a bloodless coup, used state resources to fiddle with ballot boxes over the five-day voting period, accusations the NCP ridiculed.

"This video is proving everything we said that the elections are rigged and they rigged the boxes," said opposition Communist Party official Siddig Youssef.

NO VOTES

The parties which participated in the polls said people who were sure they had voted could not find their votes in the polling stations during the counting.

Ahmed Haroun, who was running for Khartoum's state assembly, said he had his brother had voted in one centre together. But when the counting was done, there was only one vote and it was spoiled as both his symbol and that of the ruling party were ticked. So he got no votes.

"Forget my brother and the 400-member team working with me in the area - that should have been my vote," he told Reuters.

"And I definitely did not tick the tree (the NCP's symbol)," he added.

His story is similar to those of opposition candidates across Sudan who say that if they believed the low number of votes they got, their families could not have voted for them.

Armed police refused to allow Sudanese party agents to sleep near the ballot boxes overnight and on at least two confirmed occasions, NEC officials were caught at night inside the locked rooms with the ballot boxes and ballots. They all denied fraud, saying they were reviewing the ballots.

The opposition gave examples of a few centres they were able to guard overnight using weapons. There they had much more votes than the NCP, but they were outweighed by other unguarded centres in the same constituency which recorded hundreds of NCP votes, ultimately ensuring they lost.

In some polling stations, party agents found there were more ballots in the boxes than those who voted. In other centres, elections officials would not give them the numbers of voters to enable a comparison, observers said.

But the video was final proof, the opposition said.

Activists who had forwarded the YouTube video link to Reuters said they believed it was genuine and proved the accusations of fraud.

European Union and Carter Center observers had said the elections failed to meet international standards, citing the complexity of the presidential, legislative and gubernatorial votes, logistical problems, irregularities and the boycotts.