Khartoum – empty churches, streets and ballot boxes

Quite unusual for the bustling capital, voting kick-off on Sunday saw a quiet, ghosty Khartoum, as many people preferred to stay home, fearing possible unrest. All-Saints-Cathedral in the central district Amarat, a pompuous building that normally hosts a few hundred Southerners from all parts of town for mass, was empty except for a few stout believers. “It is also that many people have moved down South,” explains one church leader who preferred not to be named. He himself will stay, though, “as long as the church does.” But voting? No chance: “I haven’t even registered. Everybody knows what will happen to my vote if I cast it here.”

Throughout the week, a similar bleakness could be seen at polling stations all over the capital, with a maximum of one or two voters per hour showing up to cast their vote - to the extent that, as one journalist cynically commented, in some stations the number of observers present by far exceeded the number of voters. Of those who did show up, some seemed to favour unity over separation. Policewoman Rebecca Charles, a Shilluk, for instance said: “I work for the Sudanese police force and I have kids to feed who have gone to schools and universities here in Khartoum. I don’t want to go to the South so I don’t lose my job here. I wouldn’t risk moving there to an uncertain future.”  

Whereas Rebecca says she is still hoping voters in the North could tilt the outcome of the referendum towards unity, most Northerners treat separation as a given, showing varying degrees of emotional affection, the spectrum ranging from publicly staged bereavement all the way to utter joy.

Check the Electionnaire for more background information about the DUP

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) for one announced the first day of Referendum a day of mourning. In a highly symbolic event, members of the party wrapped in black the house of Ismail al-Azhari, one of the founding fathers of post-colonial Sudan.

Whereas, quite to the contrary, about a hundred members of the fundamentalist Forum for Peace and Justice led by Tayyeb Mustafa gathered in front of the offices of the SPLA in Khartoum, handing out sweets and carrying pro-seperation-banners  in what they termed a rally to celebrate “the beginning of the true independence of Sudan.” The Forum is notoriously known for its racist position towards the Southern Sudanese, claiming that it is only after secession that the North can properly regain its true Arab-Islamic identity.