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At UN, US envoy says vote is going 'awry' in Sudan
U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice brushed aside Sudan's assurances that it will hold fair elections this month, telling reporters Thursday that what she heard about the situation at a U.N. Security Council briefing was troubling.
"Unfortunately, the trends on the ground are very disturbing," Rice said after a closed-door briefing by U.N. peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy on Sudan's first multiparty elections in more than two decades, set to begin on April 11. "The larger picture is that much is awry in this process, and that is a real concern."
Rice said the United States would favor delaying the vote, particularly after the European Union's decision, announced Wednesday, to withdraw its election observers from Sudan, whose fate poses a risk to the stability of the broader East Africa region.
She had requested the report by Le Roy after former Sudanese Prime Minister Sadig al Mahdi's Umma party announced it will boycott the election. Several of Sudan's biggest opposition parties have withdrawn from the race.