A Sudanese woman casts her vote as representatives of candidates observe at a polling station during the second day of Sudan's first multiparty elections in decades in Khartoum Monday. – AP Some polling stations lack election materialsKHARTOUM – Observers on Monday urged Sudan to extend voting in its first open elections in 24 years after thousands of ballots were cast incorrectly and polling faced serious delays in many areas of Africa's largest country. The complex presidential, legislative and gubernatorial elections, which began on Sunday and were scheduled to last three days, had been hoped to transform Sudan from a nation emerging from decades of civil war to a democratic state. But after a wave of opposition boycotts the vote now looks likely to confirm the 21-year rule of President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir. Sudanese election observers said polling stations in parts of the north and much of the south had experienced serious delays on Sunday and in some areas voting had not begun because ballot papers had not arrived. “They may well really need to extend the period for these places where the materials haven't arrived,” said Al-Baqer Alafif, head of one of the largest Sudanese observer teams. “In the south because the materials haven't arrived in many centers, some haven't even started voting yet,” he added. He welcomed a call by the main south Sudan party for extended voting as many in the semi-autonomous south wasted hours searching for the correct voting stations. “We want four on top of the three days ... in southern Sudan,” said Samson Kwaje, campaign head of south Sudan's incumbent President Salva Kiir, who is also expected to be re-elected. The elections and a plebiscite on independence for south Sudan next year are key parts of a 2005 peace deal that ended a two-decade-long civil war between Sudan's north and south. While the first day of polling on Sunday ended with no reports of violence, Alafif said the National Elections Commission was “clearly not ready” to begin the elections on schedule and should have heeded calls from opposition parties and observers for a short delay to resolve logistical problems. Problems were expected in the complex polls, with northerners using eight ballot papers and southerners grappling with 12, but the extent of the errors, election observers said, was very serious. Voting had not begun at all in White Nile state on Sunday, opposition representatives said, after ballots were printed incorrectly – twice. “The NEC did not have arrThe NEC said there had been some “technical problems,” but blamed British and South African printers for ballot errors and said voting had begun well across Sudan.
