02 November 2009

Khartoum and Juba, Sudan: Registration of voters has begun for Sudan’s historic 2010 election, and UNV volunteers will be making a significant contribution to the electoral process.

At the time of writing there are 96 UNV volunteers involved, and 46 more are expected to arrive in November. They join 52 national and international staff working with the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) Electoral Assistance operation.

“The Electoral Assistance Division in UNMIS relies greatly on the contribution of UNV volunteers, who represent the majority of their field personnel,” remarked Daniela Bosioc, Projects and Advocacy Officer with the UNV office for UNMIS in Khartoum.

"With my background in education,” said UNV volunteer Agnieszka Mikulska, an Electoral Training Officer from Poland, “I am passionate about teaching and training. Being in the training team for Electoral Assistance simply means that I can help people of Sudan make their own choices."

"I feel elated to be involved in the country's democratic process," remarked Henry Allieu, a UNV volunteer Logistics Officer from Sierra Leone. "It has always been my dream to be part of the restorations of peace in war-shattered nations where hopes and dreams are at times lost."

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in 2005 put an end to over two decades of civil war in Sudan. The election is scheduled for April 2010 and may be essential for building more lasting peace in Sudan.

Managing the operation is the National Elections Commission (NEC), an independent body established to carry out the elections. In accordance with its mandate and in response to an official request from the NEC, UNMIS is leading the electoral assistance efforts of the United Nations.

The areas in which assistance was requested, explains Ms. Bosioc, include electoral administration and planning, voter and civic education, ways to increase women's participation, logistics operations and planning, electoral awareness, training of electoral staff and the coordination of international assistance to the electoral process. UNV volunteers have been recruited to support these activities.

The initial NEC request was only for Southern Sudan, but more recently NEC requested UNMIS to support elections in Northern Sudan and Protocol Areas. For that reason, UNV volunteers are only deployed in Southern Sudan at the moment.

In late October, some of the UNV volunteers in the south were already at work on voter registration training for Sudanese national Constituency Election Officers in Unity State. The Constituency Election Officers will liaise with and support voter registration teams and the State High Committee.

Each of the 10 states in southern Sudan has an electoral team generally consisting of five UNV volunteers: one Operations Officer/Team Leader, one Training Officer, one Civic Voter Education Officer, one Logistics Officer and one Electoral Support Officer.

There are other UNV volunteers working in headquarters in Juba and Khartoum in Field Coordination, Public Information, External Relations, Web Design and Database Management.

“These next weeks we're bringing in 75 UNV volunteers to support elections in the 15 states in Northern Sudan and Protocol Areas,” adds Ms. Bosioc. “Deployment is ongoing.”