AFRICAN UNION <A/n juwi
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PEACE AND SECURITY COUNCIL 219™ MEETING
10 MARCH 2010
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA
PSC/PR/COMM.(CCXIX)
COMMUNIQUE OF THE 219th MEETING
OF THE PEACE AND SECURITY COUNCIL
The Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union (AU), at its 219th meeting held on 10 March 2010, adopted the following decision on the AU Second Pre-Election Assessment Mission to the Sudan.
Council,
Takes note of the Report of the AU Second Pre-Election Assessment Mission to The Sudan [PSC/PR/2(CCXIX)J dispatched by the Political Affairs Department from 19 to 24 January 2010, as well as the briefings made by Ambassador B.A. Adeyemi, member of the mission and the representatives of Sudan and the European Union. Council also took note of the briefing by the Commission on the latest developments related to the forthcoming elections in the Sudan;
Notes that the forthcoming elections are to be held in the context of the January 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and will be followed by a referendum on self-determination for Southern Sudan to be held in January 2011;
Stresses the crucial importance of the April 2010 general elections as part of the democratic transformation of the Sudan, in line with the CPA. In this regard, Council calls on all Sudanese parties to do everything in their power to create conditions conducive for the successful holding of the elections;
Calls on Member States, AU partners and the international community as a whole to assist the Sudanese authorities in conducting the forthcoming elections, including the provision of support to the National Electoral Commission (NEC), to enable it to effectively discharge its mandate;
Urges the Commission to speed up the deployment of its observer mission to enable it to observe, in an adequate, effective, efficient and credible manner, all phases of the electoral process, as soon as possible and no later than the end of this month. Council, in particular, urges all AU Member States to dispatch, at their own expense, observers who would operate as part of the AU elections observer mission, to provide expertise to the NEC, as well as financial and logistical support for the holding of the elections;
Welcomes the signing, under the auspices of the AU High Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) on Sudan, chaired by former President Thabo Mbeki and comprising of former Presidents Abdulsalami A. Abubakar and Pierre Buyoya, in Juba, on 2 March 2010, by fifteen Sudanese political parties, including the SPLA, of an Electoral Code of Conduct (ECoC), which commits the parties and candidates to promote voter education and to cooperate with national and international electoral monitors, as well as of a Declaration of Common Commitments (DoCC), which support peaceful and democratic change in the Sudan. Council further welcomes the signing, in Khartoum, on 8 March 2010, by the National Congress Party (NCP), of the ECoC and the DoCC. Council calls on all parties to scrupulously implement the commitments made. Council commends the AUHIP and encourages it to pursue its efforts, and welcomes the steps being taken by the Commission to deploy a team of long term monitors to follow up and assist in the implementation of the ECoC;
Welcomes the Communique of the 14th Extra-Ordinary Session of the IGAD
Assembly of Heads of State and Government on the Sudan Peace Process, held in Nairobi, Kenya, on 9 March 2010. In this regard, Council calls for close cooperation between the AU and IGAD in the observation of the forthcoming elections;
Decides to remain seized of the matter.