UNITED NATIONS, April 13 -- With even the Sudanese government admitting widespread "technical" problems with its elections, questioning turned Tuesday to the value and quality of the UN's "technical assistance" to Sudan for its polling.
When opposition parties said that the ballots were being misprinted by the government, the UN declined to take a position, saying that the UN's role was technical and logistical, not to be observers. When the European Union observers left Darfur as unsafe, the UN had little to say.
On April 12, Inner City Press asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon if the UN thought polling should be extended in light of the snafus. Mr. Ban replied that "the United Nations has been providing technical assistance and logistical support."
Shouldn't the UN, then, have to respond to have logistically ballots weren't delivers, and technically, ballots were misprinted, with wrong names and wrong party symbols? What kind of technical assistance is this?
At the April 13 UN noon briefing, Inner City Press pursued the issue:
Inner City Press: now that the Sudanese Government has acknowledged some technical problems with the election and has extended the voting… I remember, I went to a background briefing here where it was said that the UN was providing technical assistance. I understand that the UN, because it is providing technical assistance, is not observing the election or commenting on its fairness. But what does it say about the UN’s technical assistance that there are these wide-spread technical problems with the election?
Spokesperson Nesirky: Well, it was not just at a background briefing that you heard that the UN is providing technical assistance. I think that it has been said many times from here. The UN welcomes the National Election Commission's decision to extend the voting period. This would allow the Commission to overcome the various technical difficulties encountered in the first two days of the voting. And the UN also hopes that, precisely because there is now this extension by two days, it will enable more Sudanese voters to cast their vote, especially in areas and constituencies where the technical errors caused delays to the voting process or where voters have been unable to determine which polling centre they are registered in.
As we have said, the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) is providing technical assistance and logistical support to the National Election Commission, upon request from the Commission, and will continue to do so, within the Mission’s capability. And I think that is an important point -- within the capability of the Mission. This is in order to assist the Commission in coping with the remaining technical problems and the logistical challenges.
So this is, precisely, providing assistance. It is down to the Commission, if you like, the National Election Commission, to deliver. The UN Mission in Sudan has been providing technical and logistical support to allow the Commission to deliver. Clearly, there have been huge challenges, which we have talked about here and have been talked about a lot obviously in Sudan, too.
Inner City Press: One thing I want to understand is this usage of technical problems, technical assistance. It seems like one of the problems is like ballots that have the wrong names on them, ballots that have the wrong party symbol attached to names. I am just sort of wondering: what did the UN’s technical assistance consist of? Were they supposed to look at these ballots that were going to be mass distributed to make sure that they did not have the wrong party affiliations next to the names? What was the technical assistance? If these problems took place, I am struggling to understand what…
Spokesperson: There were all kinds of layers of assistance that was provided. But I think that the most important point here is that the assistance is provided to the Commission, and it is the Commission that then delivers. It is not for the UN to scrutinize every individual ballot slip in advance of them being distributed, for example. It is providing the technical know-how -- how do you conduct an election, how do you put in place the materials that are required.
The "materials that are required" were not, in fact, in place. Some see the UN, at least its peacekeeping missions run by the Secretariat, as too close to the government. This sense is multiplied by the UN having paid a salary to pro government rebel leader Al-Tijani Al-Sissi Ateem, and then refusing to answer basic questions. On this, Inner City Press asked Spokesman Nesirky:
Inner City Press: does the Joint Mediator [for Darfur], Djibril Bassolé… is he paid by the UN and who speaks for him? Does he have a separate spokesperson or are you, in a sense, his spokesperson? Or is DPKO [Department of Peacekeeping Operations] his spokesperson? To whom would I direct questions to Mr. Bassolé in his UN capacity?
Spokesperson: Let me find out.
The question has also been put to the spokesman for the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. Watch this site.
