SUDAN / ELECTION CALL CENTRE

Ahead of the national elections in Sudan, many locals use the country's first call center for voter information and updates on polling stations. UNMIS

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:22
• Production Date: 8 April 2010
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS ASSISTANCE MISSION IN SUDAN - UNMIS
• Subject Topical: POLITICAL AFFAIRS; LAW; INTERNATIONAL LAW; POLITICAL CONDITIONS; POLITICAL CONDITIONS; POLITICAL MOVEMENTS; ELECTIONS
• Geographic Subject: SUDAN
• MAMS Id: U100408f

Description

STORY: SUDAN / ELECTION CALL CENTRE
TRT: 2:22
SOURCE: UNMIS
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS

DATELINE: 8 APRIL 2010, KHARTOUM, SUDAN

Shotlist

1. Wide shot, pan from hallway to call center
2. Med shot, call center agents
3. Med shot, computer screen
4. SOUNDBITE (ARABIC) Sami Ahmed Nurelden, Election Call Center Manager:
“We are working all week even over the weekends up to the end of elections. The employees were trained before the campaigns by service center agents to serve the voters. We have been given information about the voting process, its details, laws and its regulations.”
5. Med shot, call agent on the phone
6. Med shot, computer screen with voter names and numbers
7. SOUNDBITE (ARABIC) Alaa Ali Mohamed, Agent:
“Most of the questions we receive are about the voting center locations. When we get a call we greet the caller and ask what state he is in, he tells me his full names and I find it in the data base. After that I know where he or she is registered and where he should vote and what the registration number is.”
8. Various shots, call center agent
9. SOUNDBITE (ARABIC) Sami Ahmed Nurelden, Election Call Center Manager:
“The problem is that the voters do not know the locations of voting centers and they do not remember their voter registration numbers. We direct them by giving information about the voting center locations. One of the big problems we face is that the voters do not even know who their candidates are. We tell them that voting is their right and that they should exercise it.”
10. Wide shot, call center

Storyline

A call center with a difference, in Sudan’s Capital, Khartoum.

This is the first of its kind in the country – one dealing with voter information.

With three days to go ahead of the elections, many voters have started calling in - to get an update on where they will be expected to go and vote.

According to the National Elections Commission (NEC), voters are expected to cast votes where they were registered during the registration process, or at a polling centre near where they registered.

The NEC has been working closely with this call center to make sure important information reaches would be voters.

Any voter with access to a phone line service can call the centre through Sudan’s three major mobile operators - Zain, MTN and Sudani. The center operates throughout the day.

“We are working all week even over the weekends up to the end of elections. The employees were trained before the campaigns by service center agents to serve the voters. We have been given information about the voting process, its details, laws and its regulations,” said Sami Ahmed Nurelden the Election Call Center Manager.

Up to 16.5 million Sudanese registered to vote in Sudan’s first multi-party elections in 24 years.

The centre is equipped with 40 officials who were trained before the campaign period started in various data entry processes which included the entry of voter registration data.

“Most of the questions we receive are about the voting center locations. When we get a call we greet the caller and ask what state he is in, he tells me his full names and I find it in the data base. After that I know where he or she is registered and where he should vote and what the registration number is,” said Alaa Ali Mohamed an agent at the call-in Centre.

The workers at the call centre respond to calls from voters in both English and Arabic and are expected to work until the end of the elections process.

Some of the challenges experienced by the call centre staff include many voters who do not remember their registration numbers, the center to vote at and who to vote for.

Sami Ahmed Nurelden the Election Call Center Manager said, “The problem is that the voters do not know the locations of voting centers and they do not remember their voter registration numbers. We direct them by giving information about the voting center locations. One of the big problems we face is that the voters do not even know who their candidates are. We tell them that voting is their right and that they should exercise it.”

The staff at the call center are under clear instruction not to influence people’s decisions as of who to vote for.

Just days to the elections – it is feared that many will not know where to vote though media campaigns have been going on in different media like newspapers, television and radio.

Many Sudanese aged around 25 -35 years, are first time voters in a country which was at war for nearly two decades. A peace-deal signed in January 2005 paved the way for various dividends of peace – including these elections and a referendum expected to take place in 2011.