Five polling centres closed in Central Darfur’s Garsila

The National Election Commission (NEC) has announced the closure of five of the 16 polling centres in Garsila, capital of Wadi Salih locality, because of a delay in the arrival of voting materials.

NEC spokesman El Hadi Mohammed Ahmed said that 160 out of 7,000 polling centres distributed over 18 states witnessed logistical problems on Monday, the first voting day.

He further told the press in Khartoum that security precautions necessitated the transport of voting materials by air to El Tina, Um Baru and Karnoi localities in North Darfur, where the start of the three-day election has been postponed to Thursday.

The voting process was postponed too in the insecure border areas of El Dibab in West Kordofan and northern Abyei.

The second voting day again witnessed a poor turnout, amid a countrywide boycott of the election. The NEC has decided to extend the voting time today with one hour, from 6pm to 7pm.