Places where maybe the winner isn't the one who gets the most votes: Sudan edition

Sorry for the hiatus!

I'm currently nerding out over the voting in Sudan. The landmark elections started on sunday, were meant to end on Tuesday, and are now being extended until Thursday due to a delay in delivering ballot papers to polling stations. It's Sudan's first multi-party election in 24 years and the vote includes the next president (I'm going to go ahead and bet a giant monetary sum on the winner here. No takers?) and the 450-member National Assembly. Additionally governors, legislative bodies of the 25 states and a regional Southern president and 171 seat assembly will be chosen.  This might seem like a lot but seriously don't worry because the ballots have gorgeous beauty shots of the candidates on them. All one billion candidates.

The current prez of Sudan and everyones favorite dictator is Bashir who currently holds the honorable distinction of being the first sitting head of state to have an arrest warrant issued by the ICC on him. It's no big deal, just 7 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for that whole Darfur debacle. 

The elections are a result of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in 2005 after two decades of civil war between Sudan's North and South. Provisions of that treaty also include 2011 elections for Southern independence- the outcome of which Bashir has said he will respect. Which seemed slightly fishy. 

So far voting is shaping up to be pretty corrupt and not real. Here and here for just a few "These elections are fake" reports. A bunch of important opposition parties have boycotted in light of the fore-mentioned fakery which is a little bit of a deja-vu treat as B won the last two polls thanks in part to a large opposition-party boycott. One of the main parties to boycott was the Sudans People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), the dominant party in South Sudan. After announcing a seemingly full boycott, the leader Salva Kiir announced that in fact SPLM would be running with the exception of elections for country-president and spots in Darfur. Um. There's been serious speculation that the SPLM is stepping aside and letting Bashir and his party win in order to ensure the 2011 referendum on Southern independence. 

In light of all of this there was a recent call for a delay in election to which Bashir responded in his usual reasonable manner:

 "We have accepted the arrival of foreign observers for the elections, but if they ask that the vote be postponed, we will expel them. We expect observers to say whether the elections are free and fair, but if they intervene in our affairs, then we will cut off their fingers and crush them under our shoes." 

- Very cool song and video by Alsara and Oddisee created on behalf of the Girifna Movement (Arabic for "we are fed up", a group started by young Sudanese citizens working on getting the vote out). HT to the awesome Africa is a Country blog, which has also posted the lyrics. 

-On why this might be the most confusing election ever. 

- Some photos from the BBC