Sudan, April 08: Sudan’s polls are seen by southerners as a dress rehearsal for next year’s referendum on independence, but election violence threatens to dampen hope for the rise of a new state in the heart of Africa.
Campaign posters for the former rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement are plastered on walls along the streets of Juba, the capital of south Sudan, which is struggling to recover from a decades-long civil war that ended in 2005.
Sudan holds its first multi-party elections in over two decades on Sunday, with voters to cast their ballots in presidential, legislative and local polls and they will also be asked to choose a president for south Sudan.
The SPLM has for five years run the semi-autonmous government in south Sudan.
In the run-up to the April 11-13 polls, the SPLM, which is split between unionists and separatists, withdrew its candidate in the presidential elections Yasser Arman, and decided to boycott the polls in the north.
Arman was seen as President Omar al-Beshir’s strongest challenger and his pullout has paved the way for a comfortable win for the incumbent.
“Yasser Arman had given the population here hope, but since he pulled out, the campaign is not as important anymore,” said Peter, a young southerner working for one many international organisations in Juba.
Beshir has threatened to block the referendum on southern independence — a key element of the 2005 peace deal — should the former southern rebels boycott the election.
The elections can act as a “technical” dress rehearsal for the referendum, on an organisational level, said Luka Biong Deng, south Sudan minister for presidential affairs.
It will also allow the southerners to oversee the referendum with elected leaders, he said.
He stressed, however, that a unilateral declaration of independence would be the very last resort.
While the southern Sudanese may have lost interest in the country’s presidential polls, they are expected to pay close attention to the election for the southern president.
That election will pit incumbent Salva Kiir, who is also Sudan’s vice president, against former foreign minister Lam Akol.
Kiir has said the people of south Sudan “attach more importance to the referendum than the elections.”
Legislative and local elections are also expected to be more competitive and some fear they could turn violent.
“It is highly expected that the parliamentary elections, and particularly the elections for governors will see violence in the southern states,” said Wolfram Lacher, an analyst with British consultancy Control-Risks.
“In the Upper Nile, Warrap, Jonglei and Unity states, elections will take place in a militarised context, where clashes between soldiers and tribal groups are frequent,” he said.
The United Nations said in February it was up to the people of south Sudan to decide whether or not to opt for independence in the referendum, but said it would try to avert conflict in case of a yes vote.
The mostly Christian south Sudan is already gripped by internal tribal violence.
—Agencies