Voter registration in Darfur, Sudan has exceeded 60%

Voter registration in Darfur has exceeded 60%. UNAMID will help provide security for observers and transportation of ballots in Darfur during the vote.

"Any foreigner or organization that demand the delay of elections will be expelled sooner rather than later, " Sudan's president al-Bashir said in remarks carried by the pan-Arab Al-Jazeera television.

"We want them to observe the elections, but if they interfere in our affairs and demanded the delay, we will cut their fingers and put them under our shoes and expel them," he told supporters, according to his remarks carried by Al-Arabiya television web site."

Meanwhile, the head of the U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur said Monday he expected elections in Darfur to go smoothly, despite fears of violence and calls for the poll's delay.

Ibrahim Gambari, who took over the UNAMID mission in January, said he doesn't think security will be "a major consideration."

"The security will be pretty good, if our experience in the registration period was anything to go by," he told The Associated Press after attending an international fundraising conference for Darfur in Cairo.

Gambari said an agreement between Sudan and Chad to stop supporting rebels in their respective countries, a general decline in fighting in Darfur and diminishing rebel control over territory have already had a positive impact on security.

Full story by Sarah El Deeb SARAH (AP) CAIRO, Tuesday, 23 March 2010: Sudan prez threatens to expel election observers