Sudanese voted on April 11 after being under 'one-party' rule for 21 years.(PHOTO ESSAY: Sudan Elections )

Nairobi — Sudan will be holding a historic election on April 11 -- the first in 24 years, but problems of logistics and the complex nature of the balloting system will be a nightmare to the majority of voters in Southern Sudan.

Unlike other African countries where a voter makes three choices -- presidential, parliamentary and civic -- in Southern Sudan, each electorate will cast six ballots for representatives for three levels of government, namely the National Assembly in Khartoum, the Southern Sudan parliament in Juba (three votes) and the State Legislative Assembly in their respective States.

Each of the three legislature votes is divided into three components: 60 per cent of the members are elected to represent geographical constituencies at their respective levels, 25 per cent of the seats are to be filled by women members elected by proportional representation from party lists at state level and 15 per cent of the members are elected by proportional representation also from party lists at the state level.

Considering illiteracy to be at 70 per cent, it has not been easy to carry out sufficient voter education on such a complex ballot system.

The second challenge that will be facing the South is lack of communication infrastructure.

It is the rainy season and voters will have to grapple with the poor state of roads.

There are 12 presidential candidates representing 10 political parties with two independents.

Eleven out of them are Muslims and one is a Christian Southerner, while there is only one woman.

The candidates had to meet a very high threshold to contest.

According to the rules set by the National Elections Committee, each candidate was required to gather 15,000 supporting signatures from 18 of 25 states.

The winning candidates must garner 50 plus one per cent of all the votes cast, failure of which the leading two will go for a run-off.

As a result, Munir Sheik Al-Deen (New National Democratic Party), Fatima Abdel-Mahmood (Socialist Democratic Union) and Abdullah Aki Ibrahim (independent), were disqualified.

Even though 67 per cent of potential voters in Darfur have registered for elections, their leaders are not participating in the polls because Sudanese laws bar any party whose wing is engaged in armed conflict.

Also barred despite being senior assistant to the president is Minni Arcua Minnawi, the leader of what was once was the largest faction of the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) in Darfur.

Minnawi was the secretary of the Sudan Liberation Army leader Abdul Wahid Nur, before the organisation split in 2004.

Under Minnawi's leadership, his SLA faction signed a peace agreement, known as the May agreement, with the Khartoum government in May 2006.

The 12 candidates are President Omar al-Bashir (National Congress Party), Yasim Arman (SPLM), Dr Lam Akol (Sudanese People's Liberation Movement for Democratic Change) and Fatima Abdel Mahmood, leader of the Sudanese Socialist Democratic Union and the only female candidate.

Other are Sadiq Al-Mahdi (Umma Party), Hatem Al-Sir (Democratic Unionist Party), Abdullah Deng Nhial (Popular Congress Party), Mohamed Ibrahim Nugud (Sudanese Communist Party), Mubarak Al-Fadil (Umma Reform and Renewal Party), Abdel-Aziz Khalid (Sudan Alliance Forces) and two independent candidates, Al-Tayib Idriss and Ahmed Goha.