Sudan’s referendum commission SG candidate wants to decline post
26 August, 2010
August 25, 2010 (KHARTOUM) – The candidate for the position of the referendum commission Secretary General is no longer interested in assuming the post, Sudan Tribune has learned.
The development comes only days after the Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) agreed to let a figure from the North assume the position of the Secretary General who controls the funds and budget of the commission.
The head of the commission Mohamed Ibrahim Khalil has nominated Omer Al-Sheik who worked in the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).
The SPLM has directed fierce criticism at the choice of Al-Sheik saying that he failed in his duties within MINURSO and thus is not suitable to be the commission’s Secretary General.
A source close to Al-Sheik told Sudan Tribune that the latter has made his intentions known to Khalil who asked him to think it over and not make his desire to turn it down public.
According to the source, the prospective SG wants to accommodate his former professor but at the same time feels uncomfortable with accepting the position given the controversies surrounding the referendum process and the highly polarized atmosphere.
"I personally would not be surprised if Khalil himself quits down the road," said the source.
Khalil had threatened to resign if the SPLM continue to stall the appointment of a Northerner Secretary General stressing that Southerners already control 59 out of 63 positions outlined in the Referendum Law.
The referendum a key plank of the 2005 peace deal that ended a decades-long civil war between north and south Sudan, is due to take place on January 9, 2011 and promises southerners the chance to choose independence.
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