The Civil Society Consortium for Elections (TAMAM) has appreciated since the inception of the consortium, the support offered by the international community to achieve peace and democratic transformation in our country. Moreover, we have confronted those who depict international assistance as an intervention in Sudan’s affairs, as we consider holding free and fair elections a salient step up the road towards sustainable democracy. Sustainable democracy is one of the main pillars of the National Interim Constitution (NIC) as stated in articles 4-D and 41; therefore, everyone who supports the free and fair elections is in fact supporting the will of the Sudanese people as expressed in the constitution.

TAMAM has also confirmed on uncountable occasions that our commitment for democracy is authentically for ourselves and on behalf of no one. It stems from a deeply-rooted belief that democracy is the only system that guarantees development and prosperity for the civil society and the whole country. Civil society in general has assured that dealings with international partners depend on principles of partnership, participation, transparent equality, independence, and dialogue in order to fulfill the needs of the country as identified by civil society itself. Civil society in general has taken strides in constructing these principles and has gone through rich and complex experiences in the establishment and promotion of its democratic structures.

This paves the way to noticeable and effective contributions to developing peace, democratic transformation, human rights and good governance. As a result, TAMAM was astonished to know that the American National Democratic Institute (NDI), which has been assigned by the UNDP to support elections programs from Sudanese civil society organizations, has established its own network of civil society organizations called the Sudanese Group for Democracy and Elections. This group is composed of 8 persons who have not been elected by the civil society.

The organization's president is acting as an official spokesperson for international support in the name of Sudanese civil society on issues related to elections. TAMAM consists of a huge number of civil society organizations representing the general democratic trend whose members include those who initiated and have made the biggest contributions to awareness of and preparation for the democratic and technical requirements of a free and fair election. As a result, TAMAM declares that, this group is speaking only for itself and the persons affiliated with it. It only reflects the ignorance and arrogance of the leaders of NDI in Sudan.

The executive committee of TAMAM has tried in exhaustive and prolonged meetings to propose ways of partnership based on the values of civil society and respect for the tense experience of these organizations in the north of Sudan. TAMAM has attempted to build on and guarantee participation of all sectors of civil society in democratic elections. We have reached with NDI an initial understanding on these issues, but its leadership has ignored the results of discussions and decided to disregard the experience of civil society in the north of Sudan by repeated neglect of existing networks of hundreds of organizations.

NDI has refused to consider their demonstrated democratic commitment as criteria of independence. Instead, they have accepted the satisfaction of the government of their organization as a measurement and is "perceived as neutral by the government," said one NDI report. This response demonstrates clear ignorance of the actual situation in Sudan. Additionally, NDI's guardianship over Sudanese civil society is superficial at best, and their corrupt attempts to decoy organizations into submission through financing are immoral. In one internal NDI document, they state the intention to attract "[civil society] bringing their leadership with money as our lure."

This situation has even turned some members of civil society into spies against each other. Through these actions, leaders of the National Democratic Institute are violating the principle democratic heritage which Sudanese civil society has strived to establish and are damaging Sudan's democratic movement, an operation which they claim to support. We would like to declare our disapproval of what NDI has done as well as the procedures NDI leaders in Sudan follow.

TAMAM warns that this institute may change under the pressure some organizations still face after the expulsion of international NGOs in March 2009 and may become a submissive agent colluding with elections violations such as those recorded during voter registration. TAMAM would also like to confirm that civil society elections monitoring groups will continue to record all phases of this operation, including the performance of international organizations, and will respect our commitment to democratic principles by rejecting any form of guardianship based on bribery or other undemocratic methods. 

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