The outgoing United Nations envoy in Sudan, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi has lauded the recent developments in the country's electoral process, and urged the parties of the north-south peace agreement to press ahead during what will be a crucial year for the nation.
Although challenges still exist, Ashraf Qazi, a former Pakistani diplomat said he is confident that the national elections scheduled for April, 'the first multi-party democratic ballot for decades in Sudan', will be held. "By and large, (the elections) would satisfy the observers and above all, the people of Sudan," Qazi, UN Secretary-General's special representative and head of UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), said in his farewell speech on Monday in Khartoum.
The special representative said 2010 will be the last full year of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, signed by the National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) to end the long-running north-south civil war. "It will be absolutely critical for 2011 when the referenda are scheduled to take place both in Abyei and in the south," he said.
In a report released last month, Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon voiced concern over the continued violence in southern Sudan, lack of progress in resolving the outstanding issues regarding the disputed, oil-rich border town of Abyei, and the slow pace of progress on border demarcation. Qazi will be succeeded by Assistant-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Haile Menkerios who will take up his post in Sudan in the end of February.
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