Sudan Elections: Is it a bottle neck or another long dark tunnel
By Hala Alkarib
March 28, 2010 — The moment has arrived for Sudan, Africa’s biggest country in landscape, diversity and complexity.
Sudan’s fragmentation and complex politics has dominated the future prospects of the country and over shadowed even its position within the continent. Geopolitically up to this moment the country is struggling with its identity; whether it’s a North African, East African, Middle Eastern or a sub-Saharan African country. Historically Sudan has been all that together. The land of Sudan extends between East and West Africa and was always exposed to Middle East and Arabia as well as connected to East Africa.
The old remains of the old civilizations in the country go back to seven thousand years and have been seen by many as evident to the authenticity and expansion of the African civilization to the Mediterranean Sea and Europe.
The North-South war which continued for decades ended with the land mark agreement; Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), signed in Kenya, Nivasha in 2005. The agreement allows the country its first multiparty elections since 1986. Further, in 2011 the South Sudanese will for first time, be able to have an opportunity to vote for self determination. The vote will decide if South Sudan will continue to be a part of the big country or the South Sudanese will form their own independent state.
As clear and coherent as it is on paper, the implementation and implications of the CPA on ground was far from what it was meant to serve, as often said by Sudanese people . First, the core engineer of the CPA book was deceased less than a year after he initiated the designs (the late SPLM leader Dr. John Garang). Although his successors have managed to at least end the war and put limits to the suffering of the people of South Sudan who were massively victimized by the decades of conflict. Other than that, any other aspects of the agreement have either been implemented arbitrary and chaotically or not implemented at all. This showed that the actors responsible for the agreements had reluctantly committed to the aspects of its comprehension. After years of conflict and destruction, the CPA was more or less like a road map to rescue the country from the chronic repercussions of bad governors and injustice and to allow the people of North and South Sudan an opportunity for reasonable democratic transformation and development.
The Sudan elections schedule in the CPA book is approaching. However, the scene on ground is far from being prepared for any kind of elections. The whole purpose of the Sudan elections is to allow a democratic transformation and to facilitate a peaceful self determination vote for South Sudan and the three transitional areas yet neither the structure nor the core actors are ready or even interested in this step.
TROUBLES RENEWED AND EXPANDED
The Sudan democratic transformation is far from happening; where the central government and country resources are solely managed and controlled by the National Congress Party- the Sudan ruling party. The partnership with the SPLM at the federal level was more or less superficial and in its best conditions, minimal. The obvious manifestation of the CPA has been limited to the trading of its comprehension between the SPLM and the NCP, where the NCP committed to full withdrawal from South Sudan to be governed by the SPLM and the SPLM to withdraw from the country national scene. However, the country resources are still under the control of the strong Northern party.
At the time when the process of the CPA was happening, the Darfur crisis had erupted and a new window of fire opened. This time in the Western part of the country, thousands were killed and millions where displaced and the region of 6 million has since then lost its stability. Other areas such as Abyie and parts of South Sudan continued to be a challenge with civilians suffering and massive violent attacks happening. In the meantime, political repression and corruption continued to be the dominant patterns of Sudan’s governing system.
The actual transformation to democracy was far from the minds of the ruling party until the crisis in Darfur accumulated and was followed by the decision of the International Criminal Court to indict the Sudanese President which would hit the Northern regime heavily. At that point, the issue of elections is became politically important and relevant for the dominant NCP, where for the first time they needed the legitimacy and the vote of the nation.
SUDAN POLITICAL PARTIES AND POWER STRUCTURE
Over the past fifty years the Northern and Southern power structure of Sudan remained more or less the same. The conventional Northern parties gained their power through tribal and spiritual leadership means, mainly inherited and enhanced through the empowerment of colonialism.
The voices of the South Sudanese nation were absent largely from the political sphere and armed struggle was the only means to draw the attention of the Northern power to the voices and presence of South Sudan. The reaction of the Northern political powers was often violent and there was continued disregard of the legitimacy of South Sudanese rights and demands.
Therefore emergence of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) out of south Sudan was a change from the routine of the nation’s politics.
YEARS OF REPRESSIONS INSTITUTE A DEEP FRUSTRATION:
Since the signing of the CPA, the SPLM vision for Sudan has been hit and interrupted as a result of the soiled resistance not only from the ruling party but on and off from other conventional North and South Sudan parties. The comprehension of Sudan’s peace agreement and its aspects of equality were too much to be handled by many influential political actors as well as the NCP.
The exhausted SPLM, tired of the long confronting battles and willing to put an end to the instability, reached a semi declared position of ‘Let’s just have the South.’
On the other hand, the international actors who were carrying the CPA book hoping to at least be able to finalise the prolonged process, have some rewarding results of the long term engagement and a success story to talk about and document and maybe replicate in anther African country, grasped that the opportunity and gradually the only relevance of Sudan CPA had become, the Self determination vote of the South.
It always seems impossible until it’s done.
Nelson Mandela
As a Sudanese who grew up under constant repressive regimes, I painfully submitted to the suppression that had eaten over half of my productive age, assuming that this was it for my life time. Every gleam of hope was buried harshly by the power and corruption of the tyrants. I continued to live my life limiting myself to small scale success and working for the future generation to ensure that their lives were not eaten by repression or their development to be blocked by a corrupt regime.
However, the surprising decision of the SPLM to nominate Yassir Arman has brought something unexpected to the formula. The whole dynamic of Sudan elections has changed and as a result, much as there is no change in the status quo, it’s worth saying that it’s not only about Arman but more about the power he is bringing to the equation and the new energy that is showing in the process despite the crisis.
Until his nomination during the time when he served as a parliamentarian, the voices Arman associated himself with were the youth and the displaced women of Sudan. His issues were basically emphasizing citizenship rights and equality among the people of Sudan and ending conflicts. As a northerner, his marriage to a South Sudanese woman has made Sudanese at both Sides look up to him with some relevance and understanding to who they are.
For the first time in decades Sudan has a candidate seeking to support his candidacy through his political positions, not because of his tribal afflation, family history or enforced military power.
Arman’s candidacy from my point of view deserve a second look, great consideration, a moment of thought and rereading the book of Sudan CPA.
The author a Sudanese human and women rights activist works in Sudan and the Horn of Africa on aspects of policy and legislating change in relations to women rights and gender equality. Written and contributed to many papers and articles on women rights situation in the Horn of Africa and Sudan; latest report” Waking through Forest of Thorns – About women organisations experiences advocating against violence against women in the Horn of Africa”. She is the current director of a Horn of Africa Women Coalition-(SIHA)