Elections in Sudan - Day Two

Juba, Southern
April 12, 2010

Hassan Fataki is a somewhat short man in his late fifites.  He shows a warm smile as he approaches his polling location in the west of Juba in the area called Muniki. He was unable to vote yesterday because his name was not found on the voter roll, so he spent the day walking between different polling location in the hoping his name and registration have accidentally appeared somewhere else.

In order to find his name, he has to approach polling staff and request they look through an alphabetical list of registered voters.  Because names were originally handwritten during registration and different election workers typed the information into a database, names are often written incorrectly.  Many polling locations have received lists that are entirely in Arabic which makes the finding registrations presented in English all the more difficult.

In addition, all registrations include four names while most Southern Sudanese use two or three names.  Most voters added their father's name to the registration under the assumption they were required to use four names.  Sometimes, the fourth name has been listed as the first which has further confused the search for missing registrations.

Today, as voting winds down, Hassan has returned to his original polling location, where he was registered, and expected to return to,.in order to vote.

Groups of polling locations are called polling locations are called polling centers.  Polling centers are grouped together under the control of the local National Election Commission Controllers.

Luckily for Hassan, the Muniki NEC Controller has just arrived at his polling location with the original registration booklets from November.  Registration cards were torn out of the registration booklets and a stub was left behind with a copy of the voters name and registration number.

According to the Controller, who declined to have her name recorded, they NEC local office met last night and decided they needed to bring these booklets to each of the polling locations to confirm registration cards.  The polling staff look through the registration booklet if a name is missing from the voter roll and still allow them to vote as long as their names have been found.

The Controller looks tired as she slowly leafs through each of the seven booklets from this polling location looking for Hassan's registration.  Hassan looks over her shoulder with his hands behind his back expectantly but trying to stay out of her way.

Although this solution is far from perfect, as registration cards can not always be connected to the voter rolls, it is allowing many people to vote.  On average, polling centers have still only allowed perhaps 20% of would-be voters to cast their ballot.  At different sites around Juba, the heads of the polling locations report they have turned away as many as 50% of the people who are looking to vote.  The great majority of these people have valid registration cards that could not be located in the voter rolls.

The controller slumps back in her chair and calls over to the staff member manning the voter rolls.  Hassan's registration has been found and he will be allowed to vote.

Interestingly, the polling staff is able to then find his name, which appears to be very similar to the name on his registration card.  In the voter rolls, his registration is alphabetized by his first name and his registration number is correct.  As I asked why his name was not found earlier, people begin to get suspicious, and stop talking to me.

It is a strange situation because the controller and the polling staff seem diligent in their work and interested in ensuring people have their chance to vote.  Hassan's situation may have just been an oversight or perhaps something else, but nothing indicates any wrongdoing.

As the second of three days of polling come to a close, reports are coming in that polling centers beyond Muniki have received the registration booklets.  Although they are arriving late, they are now able to locate peoples' names by searching through a list of registration numbers.

Apparently, missing registrations is a problem specific to the south, and it seems the government of the south and the southern NEC feel the problem was an error of data entry.  This is a good fix for a problem that has seriously complicated this historic vote.

For the moment, as Hassan happily dips his finger in the green ink and collects his ballots, but the polling staff have their work cut out for them as polling is set to close tomorrow.