PRESIDENTIAL VOTING: SUDAN AMBASSADOR TO MALAYSIA CREATES HISTORY

By R.Ravichandran

KUALA LUMPUR, April 12 (Bernama) -- Sudan ambassador to Malaysia Nadir
Yousif Eltayeb created history and had the honour of being the first person of
the African country to cast his vote in Sudan's historic presidential election
which began Sunday.

The embassy in Jalan Ampang here also created history by becoming the first
voting centre to be opened for the presidential election, in the multiparty
elections held for the first time after a lapse of 24 years.

These firsts were all due to the time difference, where Malaysia is five
hours ahead of Sudan.

Nadir cast his vote at 11am Sunday, immediately after the polling centre
opened at the embassy, which is housed in a double-storey bungalow.

Polling stations in Sudan opened from 8am to 6pm (Sudan time), which
means from 1pm to 11pm in Malaysia.

The voting at the embassy is held for three days from Sunday, 11am to 11pm.

"The voting process will end on Tuesday and immediately after that, the
counting will be held," Nadir told Bernama in a phone interview Sunday night.

President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir cast his vote at about noon (Sudan time) in
Khartoum.

Bashir who came to power in 1989 is defending his post against 11 other
candidates in the first multi-party elections since 1986.

Nadir said the Sudanese embassy here also had the privilege of being the
only voting centre in the Asian region, meaning that Sudanese citizens residing
or working in Asia and registered to vote, have to come here to vote.

He said the embassy was selected for being the voting centre for Asia
because Malaysia had the largest number Sudanese in the region, with its
students alone numbering 3,000.


Nadir said in total, 504 Sudanese nationals in Malaysia and other parts of
Asia including Thailand had registered to vote in the presidential election.

"I believe at least 80 per cent of them will come to cast their votes by the
time voting closes on Tuesday," he said, adding that by 9.30 tonight about 120
people had voted.

Nadir said the voting in Kuala Lumpur was being watched by four
independent observers.

During the three days of voting, some 16.5 million registered voters will
choose a national president, a leader for the semi-autonomous south, MPs, state
assembly members and governors.

The elections are being held for three days due to the size and poor
infrastructure of Africa's largest country which has a population of 42 million.
The results are expected by April 18.

-- BERNAMA



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