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As polling results are expected to be released in the next few days for Sudan's first multi-party election in over 24 years, some are warning the voting process was fraudulent.

In a press conference, President Jimmy Carter, head of the U.S.-based non-profit The Carter Center says, while the elections were a step in the right direction for the country, they were many steps behind in international standards.

"Quite often there were inadequate materials delivered to the polling stations, sometimes they didn't have booths where they could vote secretly, sometimes there were not all the ballots there or an inadequate number of ballots."

In an interview with The Sudan Tribune, a spokesperson for the African Union's (AU) observer mission says even though the process didn't go perfectly, there's still no reason to believe the elections weren't fair.

"Looking into the fact this is a country that had not had a multi-party election for almost a generation... to say that they are free and fair, to the best of our knowledge we have no reason to think the contrary."

The elections are also important because they were put in place as part of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement to help end the civil strife in Sudan. A research analyst for the Africa Conflict Prevention Program in South Africa tells Voice of America, any accusations of fraud could keep the country from truly transforming into a democracy.

“We have had a lot of uncertainties at this time in Sudan transition and the elections now if they are contested, which they could be...then we might have a stagnation in the whole negotiating for the post-referendum arrangement.“

But however important the elections are to the peace process, a columnist for 234next.com says they mean the most to current President Omar al-Bashir. Bashir's reputation has been marred by scandal thanks to a recent indictment for war crimes in the country.

"He needs it to send signals to the international community that he is still ‘popular’, despite the charges against him. This was, however, denied of him by the mass withdrawal from the election by majority of the parties in south Sudan."

But the advisor for the Enough Project, a group created to help end genocide and war crimes, says while it may be important to President Bashir, it means nothing to the people of Sudan.

"I would be very, very surprised if the results came out and people were talking about a huge number of people in Darfur voting, that's not true.

We don't expect that this process after the NCP wins, the National Congress Party, which is expected to win since there is no real competition and there's no real election, it's a sham."

For more background into the voting controversy and the struggle taking place in the country of Sudan, see our links section for related videos in the transcript.