Sudan Election Period Extended by Two Days

April 13 (EIRNS)—Two more days have been added to the Sudanese election period, which began April 11, and was scheduled to end today. The two extra days will help alleviate technical and logistical difficulties, and the complex balloting procedure in which each voter votes for a large number of candidates on local and legislative levels, as well as for President. In some areas, voters mark 12 separate ballots. The elections will now end April 15.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is in Sudan, leading a delegation of observers from his Carter Center. According to press accounts, he commended the Sudanese government for organizing the election procedure in very difficult circumstances, and characterized the elections as a vital step in the process of peace between north and south Sudan.

On the first day of the elections, Carter said in Khartoum: "It's not going to be a perfect election. There are no such things. But if we feel that in the elections the will of the voters has been expressed adequately then that would be the primary judgment we will make."

Carter later pointed out that despite the pullout by some candidates from the election, there are still about 14,000 candidates participating. The pullout by the opposition's Presidential candidates, is reportedly because they didn't want to expose their lack of support. Their names will still be on the ballot, because they announced their decision to back out too late. According to a Financial Times report on the first day of the elections, "Some opposition sympathisers see the partial boycott as a strategic error by opponents of the regime because they have shut themselves out of future institutions." There are 750 international observers and 18,000 domestic observers, according to the UN.

Despite long lines and delays, there has been no reported violence in the elections, outside of SPLM-ruled southern Sudan. Observers point out that elections that do not include violence are uncharacteristic in Africa. Sudan observers report a great deal of excitement with respect to the election, not necessarily over who will win, but in having the chance to vote.

Despite these developments, and because of the widely anticipated victory of Sudan President Hassan Omar al-Bashir, intelligence operations run by the British imperial financial cartel, such as Save Darfur and the International Crisis Group (ICG), are gearing up to discredit al-Bashir, charging that if he wins, it will be proof of fraud. Al-Bashir had been widely credited in Sudan as the leader who made the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) possible. The CPA ended the protracted north vs. south civil war in 2005.

The ICG was founded by George Soros and Britain's Mark Malloch-Brown, both operatives for the British imperial system. The groups' March 30 report on Sudan advocated that "governments, and international organisations should state that the newly elected government, particularly if the incumbent wins, will have very little legitimacy." The report was quick to add, however, that this campaign to deny legitimacy to an al-Bashir victory "should not serve as a pretext for refusing to ensure the remaining implementation of the CPA." The remaining implementation of the CPA is the referendum scheduled for next year, which the British Imperial system hopes will lead to the breakup of Sudan, if southern Sudan votes to secede.

The anglophile U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Susan E. Rice made no secret of the fact that she shares this anti-Sudan view. She undiplomatically said, according to an April 8 CNN blog, that "she found much of what she had learned about Sudan's election preparations 'quite disturbing.' "

Tony Blair Pushes Imperialism in Africa

April 10 (EIRNS)—The April 19 edition of Time magazine carries a fundraising piece by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, entitled, "What Aid Can't Buy in Africa," which promotes his new "soft" version of British imperialism, based on his Feb. 9, 2009 U.K.-registered charity, the Tony Blair Africa Governance Initiative. The Initiative, beginning in 2008 with deals signed between Blair, and President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone, has recently expanded to include a deal with President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia, and there are reportedly more such arrangements in the works.

What Blair calls good governance involves Blair placing hand-selected, British-trained "advisors" into key positions in the Presidents' Office, the Finance Ministry, and other command positions in the three countries' governments, ostensibly, according to Blair's Time piece, to translate the Presidents' "vision" into "good governance action." In reality, what the neo-colonial "advisors" do, is to persuade the countries' leaders to open the doors for British finance and political control. Blair has personally taken Kagame (Rwanda joined the Commonwealth two months ago as the 54th state) to meet the Queen, and has taken Kagame and Koroma to special investment fora in the City of London, for loans.

But, Blair preaches a "sustainable development" model, and advocates green technology, which will never lift the citizens of these countries out of poverty. The loans will drive them deeper into indebtedness, and not supply necessary infrastructure such as rail, nuclear energy, water treatment, and sewage.

Blair handles the funding for the Africa Governance Initiative through a thicket of 12 impenetrable limited liability companies headed by Windrush Ventures No. 3 and Firebrush. The Gates Foundation and the Gatsby Foundation were donors.

The plan for Blair's scheme dates back to a Venetian Memorandum drafted by Sir Oswald Mosely (onetime head of the British Union of Fascists, turned post-World War II united Europe leader), whose principles Blair embraced when he was campaigning to be EU President. Mosely's Memorandum envisioned a European Empire with a softly ruled African sphere of influence. Now, Blair, having failed to win the EU Presidency, is organizing a new "soft" version of British imperialism in Africa.