Yousif Takna, a former administrative officer and Darfuri scholar, says he expects a boycott of the referendum on Darfur’s administrative status from many people in the western Sudanese region.
The Sudanese government has announced that citizens will vote on whether or not the region will keep its five states or reunite as one entity with a semi-autonomous administration.
Takna said in an interview with Radio Tamazuj last Thursday that the Sudanese government wants to destroy the social fabric in Darfur by conducting the referendum at a time where there is a lack of consensus among the people in the region and other political parties in Sudan.
He pointed out that one third of the population of Darfur have been displaced or fled to other countries due to the continued war which makes it difficult for them to participate in the referendum process.
Meanwhile, several citizens from the Darfur region interviewed by Radio Tamazuj about the ongoing registration of voters for the referendum said the turnout has been low.
An activist from East Darfur who preferred not to be named said there are only two registration centers amid lack of media campaign to educate the citizens about the referendum.
He also claimed that on Wednesday and Thursday the registration centers witnessed violations by the organizers when they allowed children to be registered and other people to be registered more than one time.
He further added that the organizers handed the registration documents for youth to go and register people inside the residential areas without any legal procedures. The activist denied press reports that the registration process is going regularly.
Separately, the Sudanese communist party announced on Thursday its rejection of the Darfur referendum, calling on the government to allow Darfur to be united as one region without conducting the referendum.
The party said in a press release that Darfur historically was one region until it was divided into three states through administrative order by Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir and not through a referendum.
The party also called for the ongoing war in Jebel Marra to be stopped.