Violence minimal in these winds of change

There are over 20,000 police officers deployed on the streets of Khartoum today, in anticipation of the election results that are coming through drip by drip.   The security are keeping a keen eye on any protest that may occur, once the results are announced.  There is a particularly strong police presence in the slums on the outskirts of Khartoum as the poor masses are mostly SPLM supporters.  However such places, that often draw crime due to extreme poverty, are at present calm with business as normal.  It is true to say that since the withdrawal of SPLM presidential candidate Yasir Saeed Arman, alot of his supporters, such as those pictured above just a few days back, have lost their enthusiasm and passion for their party.

In Hai Yousf, an area of the slum mostly inhabited by South Sudanese, Nuba and Darfuris.  Mr. Koul M. Majok, a resident of Hai Yousf told me that since last Friday after the end of voting, police patrols are picking up the slum dwellers found loitering on the street at night.  Those lucky receive just a beating by cane while others may be taken for interrogation when release is thus more uncertain. We are the police target. But I really don’t think if anyone here wants to protest the election results after all most of us did not vote especially we the Southerners because we are waiting for 2011.  Now we are ready to accept what may come out from these elections” Mr Koul told me.

Contrary to this sentiment, The National Congress Party (NCP) presidential advisor Nafie Ali Nafie claimed last week that the opposition parties would seek to overthrow the elected government by "going to the streets and try to change the regime through conflict and riots".  

It is easy to forget where Sudan was just one decade ago. The change has been great.

So far he has been proved wrong. The heavy deployment of security and police in Khartoum could be one factor in deterring the opposition from organising such protests to the election outcome, but my impression is more that there is an acceptance of this election on the ground, like there has never been before in Sudanese election history. The winds of change have come to Sudan and the people realise this is to be accepted.   As Scott Gration said the election process has been as "free and fair as possible" in the circumstances.  It is easy to forget where Sudan was just one decade ago. The change has been great.

President Kiir cast one of his votes for President Omar Bashir.

Of course, there remain those that believe the election results should not stand.  Sahiq Al-Mahadi the leader of the UMMA party the largest opposition group in Northern Sudan has called for another election to take place after the referendum in either a united or divided Sudan.  He said that the international observers wanted this election carried whether it was free and fair or not.  Their main target being to prepare the South Sudan for independence come 2010 thus the UMMA protests were falling on deaf ears. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Yousif Mohamed Zein also announced that they were not going to recognise the elections results warning that the government would never accept all the political parties that have been elected to run the country.

Another factor in reducing the violence perhaps was the SPLM withdrawal from the presidential race and then its sudden late return. For the people of the South to see their President Kiir on the one hand say he is fighting for his Southern brothers in the bush and with the other hand vote for Bashir in the north this has made his people question the backroom deals being done by the SPLM leadership, without the consent of the people. The irony being, this perhaps has deterred the violence many were expecting over this election time.