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Africa Horn
EU to send 130 monitors to Sudan's April polls
2010-03-12
[Al Arabiya Latest] The European Union says it will send 130 future hostages observers to make sure Sudan's general elections in April are free and fair.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Thursday the April 11-18 vote will be "an important milestone" in bringing lasting peace to a country wracked by decades of fighting.

Veronique De Keyser, a member of the European Parliament, will lead more than 130 future hostages observers from 22 countries to assess the presidential and legislative elections in April. "If the people don't understand really what is the meaning of the vote this could be for me at least the major trap, the major pitfall," she told reporters in Khartoum. "And it's difficult because ... some people have never voted," she said, stressing this was not deliberate and that the EU has pledged money for voter education.

"So at the beginning of the process we have to admit that it will not be perfect but we have to pay attention to that," she said, adding the road to democracy was long.

A 2005 peace deal ended a north-south conflict that killed 2 million people, but by then the western Darfur region was at war. The election will be a test run for a 2011 independence referendum in southern Sudan.

The vote will be Sudan's first multiparty election in 24 years.
Posted by:Fred

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