In Sudan, the World Is Changing

The elections in Sudan over the last week have given rise to the broadest and most public debate about the governance of the country since before the 1989 coup that brought Omar Al-Bashir and his regime to power. Opposition parties, civil society organizations, and a nascent youth movement have participated loudly in the process — despite ever-present threats of intimidation and repression. These important elements of Sudanese society seized on the first openings of political space, even if many used the opportunity to boycott and denounce the electoral process.

Thus, it seems clear that as a high-level European official told me in Khartoum two months ago, “the world will have changed” in Sudan after these elections. To take just one example, Opheera McDoom of Reuters wrote before the elections that it’s “undeniable that political debates with opposition candidates broadcast live on television are a massive step forward in a nation where the government has kept a tight control over state media and censored private media for more than two decades.”

A return, therefore, to purely autocratic politics may not be entirely possible. The chances, however, are more likely in the event that the Obama administration and others in the international community whitewash these elections and explicitly or implicitly confer legitimacy on the Bashir regime.

Such a reaction to these sub-standard and even rigged elections would be to ignore and disappoint important voices in Sudan. After their first taste of dissent, the young people that participated with Girifna — a voter mobilization and advocacy effort — might find it hard to remain silent once again. Furthermore, in sharply rebuking the National Elections Commission’s monitoring of the campaign period and management of the polls, three leading domestic monitoring groups have already called for new elections after the referendum for South Sudan next year and “the achievement of peace and security in Darfur.”

As I wrote on Friday, Bashir’s party has already given signals on how it will interpret the election results. Last week, Nafie Ali Nafie — a leading hardliner — argued that a Bashir victory will prove that the allegations against the president are false and that the Sudanese, especially the people of Darfur, reject the International Criminal Court’s case against him. Then, just yesterday, he poetically and eerily opined, “The results of the elections have silenced tongues and opened up clouded eyes” (article in Arabic).

So while some things seemed to have changed in Sudanese politics, a newly emboldened regime in Khartoum may actually emerge. With challenging days still ahead, who now in the international community will stand with those in Sudan who are advocating for peace, justice and political reforms?

Photo credit: Mark Lotwis/Save Darfur Coalition (used with permission)