The Paper Mill War: Elections Posters in Khartoum

Khartoum's streets are lined with the flickering faces of smiling men whose smiles have now been ripped and bruised. Before everyone pulled out, this election was being fought at the photocopiers. It was a visual fight, a papery race to the ballot. These are just some of the faces inhabiting the walls and streets of Khartoum this month...

The Sudanese Youth Federation implores you:

"to affirm your right and vote for a better tomorrow!"

The Umma Party Reform candidate Mubarark El Fadil El Mahdi. The Umma Party was the winner of the last national elections in 1986. This government was ousted in the military coup in 1989. The leader of the main Umma Party is still Sadiq al Mahdi. This is another faction, the Reform and Renewal's candidate, Mubarak El Fadil El Mahdi. The two factions unified about two weeks ago. They have now withdrawn from the presidency, though I believe they are still running in specific seats. 

At the bottom, it reads:

"For a redefinition of the Sudanese state" 

(it's a pity this bit of the poster is so tiny!)

The DUP party is the other historical party in Sudan. It is associated with the Al Mirghani family. Their leader is Mohamed Osman al-Mirghani. I can't find any presidential posters but here are some posters for their Khartoum candidates. They pulled out of the elections but have now re-joined the process. There is a rumour that they were paid to do so (but this is just a rumour that no-one can prove. ;)

And here is Omar Bashir. The NCP party candidate and presiding head of state. The NCP has chosen a tree as its symbol. Its roots represent the rivers of Sudan. In the background, there is a photograph of Merowe Dam. This was built last year and inaugurated directly after the ICC indictment against Bashir. 

Jousting for space along the road...

The Sudan People's Liberation Movement's candidate, Yassir Sayeed Arman. This party started as a liberation movement in Southern Sudan, led by John Garang. The NCP and the SPLM signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005 . The election is part of this process, as is the referendum on Southern independence next year. Before he withdrew from the presidential race last week, he promised to "Activate the Participation of Women in Public Life"

The SPLM is now running in the South but not in the North.

The Sudanese Group for Democracy and Elections says 

"Together, we can have free and fair elections!"

I wish I had had the good sense to take a photograph of this telegraph pole every day to document the change. Now the NCP has won the fight, but it has been a real paper mill battleground, with each party trying to claim it as their own. At the top, you can see some Umma posters, SPLM in the middle and independents at the bottom. Now it is Bashir land.

Democratic Union Party. National Council candidate, 

Professor Mohamed Ali Aoud Karim. 

His face is all over the place. 

Here he is in a suit

and here he is in Jallabiya. Got to cover all sides!

Another NCP poster. Check out the visuals at the bottom. DEVELOPMENT! There was apparently some kind of ceremony at the Merowe dam this week, just in time for the elections!

(so why have we been having so many power cuts?)

A DUP poster erected in the last two days. There were none this size before last week. I wonder why...

Another NCP poster. 

Mahjoub Mohamed Khaled

The Sudanese Communist Party. 

They propose:

"Balanced development

Strong peace

One Nation

Entrenched democracy!"

Fatima Abd Al Mahmoud.

For President. 

"For women and families

Democracy and Free Education and Health

Well-being and Rural Development for Sudan

Justice!"

She is the first female presidential candidate and she has chosen a pigeon as a symbol.

This is the presidential candidate for the Communist Party: Mohamed Ibrahim Naqd.

I like his hand gesture. 

Another DUP poster. 

An independent. He has chosen a football.

Galal Mohamed Salah Al Naqari. The PCP party (Turabi's party).

Turabi was part of the government in the early 1990's. He was pushed out and formed his own party, the PCP. They are still taking part in the election.

Here he is for the disabled and handicapped. 

A huge Yassir Arman sign on the side of the road. The rumour is that they had to pay A LOT of money to the NCP for this privilege. 

Women's alliance parties.

List of Women running for the National Council.

"For the sake of a better life for the Good People."

"There are many voters but one word: YES"

An independent for Khartoum state. He has chosen a bell as his symbol.

For the Khartoum State Assembly, Umma Party: Mohamed Akasha Ahmed Akasha

This photo comes from the rally after the ICC indictment. 

It's only a little reassuring that they can't spell. 

Another SPLM.

This time his poster reads "For peace, security and prosperity!"

Hope and Change? Inshallah....

What we should learn from this election.

"HEY HEY HEY!"

"Stop the car, there is a khawajia chasing us!"

"Why stop the car if she's after us? She looks mean!"

"Just stop the freaking car!"

The car stops. 

Breathless, the words surface in my mouth, salty dry words that have been baked to a crisp by the chase. 

"I.... want.... a.... poster."

"You want a poster?"

"Naam!"

"An Omar Bashir poster?"

Eyes roll up and down like extremely dubious yo-yos. Clearly I am not your typical NCP customer, but then who isn't these days? Even the mother of my Coptic landlady seems to love the cha cha man. "He good" she says to me, "strong!"

I try to get into character, "Yes, I want an Omar Bashir poster!" I forcibly silence the reason in my brain to spit out the words, "I have chased you down half of Africa Road, haven't I?"

 "You like Bashir?" Narrowed faces almost poking at me. The reason's getting rowdy. Pipe down, I command! My eyes twitch. "A big time fan?" 

"More or less", I concede, not explaining less is the operative word. 

"Very well then."

They hand them over. 

Alhamdulilah! 

I have been collecting campaign posters from speeding vehicles, snapping inconspicuously at the road side and doing my damn well best to acquire political items of clothing- it began with a rather convincing Salva Kir hat, then an Umma waistcoast, now a beautiful SPLM t-shirt. But it's all a little sobering. I have done all of this for a non-election. 

Last Sunday I went to the Rashid Diab arts centre to listen to a seminar about the elections. One of the speakers urged the foreign monitors to accept this election, unlike he said, Iran and Palestine. He got lots of cheers. A real crowd pleaser. But it's kind of hard to accept an election that none of the other parties accept (or didn't accept before they were bribed... but that is just a rumour!)

For those unfamiliar with Sudan's current election, it's important to think of it as a gift. A gift of legitimacy from the opposition parties to the ruling regime. He is clearly going to win the thing. He has all the state's resources to use at his disposal. He has twenty years of power under his belt, systematically destroying all opposition, kicking out and silencing intellectuals and monopolizing the media. He is also credited for bringing peace to the South, oil from the ground and stability to the country as a whole. Elections are in his interest. A gift. A democratic crown (probably made by Chinese workers)!

The gift is part of a Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the North and the South, and as such, it comes with strings. Some of these strings are public: when it comes to the election- an abrogation of the emergency laws, an independent election commission, limitations on campaign spending and widening of press freedoms. There are also lots of rumors about backroom dealing: hidden strings. It seems a little puzzling that the opposition parties waited until one week before the elections to announce their boycotts. You have to speculate that they have been negotiating with the ruling party: we will take part in this "show" if you meet our demands. Some say that the SPLM and the other parties had an agreement to cooperate with one another and when the SPLM pulled out (possibly by request from the NCP in return for a smooth referendum next year) the others withdrew angrily. Did the NCP manipulate the Juba Alliance in order to bring about this collapse? Did they underestimate the other parties' tenacity? The latest rumour is that the DUP has been paid millions of pounds to re-enter the election (certainly their posters have shot up dramatically these past couple days). Whether this offer was also extended to the Umma party, we can only speculate. Was the bribe not big enough? Did they resist on the basis of principles or do they have other tricks up their sleeves?

At first I was really angry at the other parties. Regimes aren't removed overnight. They take multiple elections. They take dilution. They take time. Whatever his image in the Western media, Omar Bashir is an extremely popular man- especially in Khartoum. And the other parties can't expect anything else. For me, this election was the first step of many. Of course the NCP was going to win, but the idea was to get people going. 

From a Khartoum perspective, Sudan is booming. Roads are being built, parks and public spaces are being transformed, development projects have been jump-started all over the place over the past year (some say as a form of election campaign). And most importantly, people are scared of change. This is not surprising. Omar Bashir is all about stability. The last democratic period in Sudan was a time of great economic crisis, shortages in basic supplies, war and mass exodus of Sudanese professionals and experts abroad. Most of the people I have asked about the elections believe that Sadiq ElMahdi and his democracy failed to pull Sudan out of trouble. Whether it is fair to compare a three year term with a twenty year term is beside the point. Better the devil you know than the devil you don't. 

What this election has really drummed into me is the idea that democracy does not begin and end with elections. Democracy is about a relationship between a state and its people. This is something Justin Willis spoke about in his lecture on the history of Sudanese elections last year. I wish the opposition parties had listened. For a real democracy to blossom, there has to be expectations. Demands! Promises extended and votes as contracts! Democracy is not supposed to be about loyalty, about charisma per se, but about interests, policies, development. This is not the situation in Sudan and has not been the case in past elections. Probably the most surprising thing about Omar Bashir's success is his popularity among those hardluck souls who don't have any wasta. The other week I met a taxi drivers with a PhD in Engineering who said he will still vote for Bashir. When I ask, "Why? You have a PhD and you're driving a taxi! Clearly not a good economy, not a good system!" He explained that he is better than the others. "They don't want change, they just want power." There are SO many people like this. Maybe they don't all have PhDs, but a vast number of the unemployed and semi-employed are university graduates who are dissatisfied with the labour market. If you can't convince these people to vote for you, then you aren't trying hard enough. It's really that simple. 

This sentiment was echoed by a University of Khartoum professor, Atta El Battahani. He mused that perhaps the only party that really wants to change the system is the SPLM. The others just want to take over what the NCP has built. Many Northerners feel that the SPLM is a party of the South. After the referendum, they will be irrelevant and it would be foolish to squander your vote on a party that will soon be gone. When I went to the SPLM offices this week to interview someone about government employment, I was surprised about the number of Northerners in the office. It was kind of lovely: a snapshot of a new Sudan, Southerners and Northerners drinking tea together beneath a line of framed photographers of the late John Garang. Mash'allah! But without the philosopher-king, the SPLM doesn't seem to garner wide scale support in the North. 

I have a lot of sympathy for the other parties. They are up against a mountain but at the same time, they could have done better. They could have made this election about issues, about the economy, about education, about jobs! There are so many frustrations simmering. They have really wasted an amazing opportunity to change the language of democracy away from loyalty and towards a discussion of the reality on the ground. There is so much opportunity in this country- oil, agriculture, universities galore and many of its problems (like the mismatch between education and employment) are due to terrible mismanagement, an amazing lack of coordination among government ministries and a complete lack of responsibility on the part of officials. I was completely stunned when the Minister of Labour told me it was not his responsibility to look at the career prospects of Sudanese graduates- that was the job of the Ministry of Higher Education. This government could be doing so much MUCH better- even leaving aside any discussion of Darfur. I have been saying all along that I don't really care which party wins, as long as they raise the expectations of the population, as long as they make government accountable. That is what democracy should bring: accountability. That is the whole bloody point, isn't it?

Instead it seems this election has brought the opposite: legitimacy without justification and we are all to blame. Obviously the NCP is to blame. They have manipulated the election and undermined the unity of the other parties. The other parties failed to change the language of democracy and make the "wasta-less" realize that change is possible. Of course they are scared, but people can be made to be brave! The international community is to blame for pushing and pushing without remembering the true purpose to begin with: to bring accountability. Those who understand Sudanese politics best- and I believe Atta and Justin are among them- have been recommending for this election to be postponed for months. It was clear that the country was not ready. 

I hope that we all learn from this experience for next time and I do believe there will be a next time. Voter education should not just be about the mechanics of choosing, but about making demands and searching for solutions. A campaign should be a time of great discussion, a focus on national problems and a cacophony of suggestions. The international community is so obsessed with the mechanics of elections: the ballot papers, the finance, the posters, the journalists, the monitoring, but what about the issues? What about that relationship between people and candidate? How can we re-formulate interventions and programs that seek to promote democracy towards accountability? That is the lesson we should learn from this election, I believe.

I am still happy there will be an election. For one of my best friends here, this will be the first time he has ever participated in an election. It should be a time of celebration. In some ways, he is lucky. He wants to vote for an independent. He can still mark his "x" where he chooses. It is a fine thing to vote and we need to celebrate!

We shall see what the week ahead brings. What kind of celebrations are in order. 

The symbolism of a broken toe: the ICC, Omar Bashir and the Sudanese elections

I have spent most of the past weekend locked inside.

Not exactly locked, I mean no one came over and physically ripped the key out of my hand and inserted it into the keyhole. Rather it was strongly encouraged for all khawajas in Khartoum to stay inside this week. Why?

The ICC issued an arrest warrant for the Sudanese President, Omar Bashir of war crimes and crimes against humanity (but not genocide). What does this mean? (apart from the fact that I got involved in an indoor football match that very nearly cost me a toe!) It means that they think they have enough evidence to prosecute him. They say they have over 30 witnesses who can directly link him to atrocities in Darfur. 

Are they right? I am going to be a little bit controversial here and say who cares...

What I think matters more is what this ruling means to the forthcoming Sudanese election and the internal politics of the nation more generally. 

I am not saying that what happens in Darfur doesn't matter on a humanitarian level. Of course, that matters. Millions of people will be affected by this court ruling (though perhaps not in a positive way, given the exile of 10 of the bigger international NGOs operating in Sudan). But if there is to be any sort of solution to the problem of Darfur it has to come from internal pressures. On the whole, Sudanese people are very very nice. They are just as frustrated with their own government as you or I (they have to deal with them every day!). If foreigners want to make change, they have to do it with the cooperation and participation of the Sudanese citizenry.

Almost every Sudanese person I know does not like the ICC.  Their typical response is "I am against the policies of this government, but this is not the way you change things. Why doesn't the ICC prosecute Bush and Israel? There are plenty of war criminals. Why us?" Most feel ashamed and offended that an external power is trying to interfere in the internal politics of their country. Others say "Well, Omar Bashir is the best of the worst. He is the one that brought peace in the South and he has transformed the economy in recent years. He is not perfect, but he brings stability." This is also a fair point. Some of the other "big men" in the government aren't any better (and could be quite a bit worse) than Omar Bashir. Removing him from office could create great instability for the country and leave a dangerous power vacuum.

Personally, I am divided whether or not I support the ICC's attempts. I have many friends that work in Darfur and I know that the situation is not improving. The political negotiations seem to go nowhere and there is a dire lack of trust among all those at the table. I can see why Luis Ocampo has taken it this far. He is desperate for some kind of solution.  We all are. But is the ICC going about it in the right way? I am not convinced. This ruling seems to have made Omar Bashir more popular than before.

Last Tuesday, I took a bus from downtown Khartoum to Amarat. I was happily working on an Arabic short story, asking the man next to me for vocabulary and generally ignoring the chaos of bus life. Suddenly, the radio jumped in volume. I heard an angry booming voice. The man next to me asked another passenger, "The president?" He nodded. My ears pricked up. 

I didn't get all of it, but what I did get was perfect PR, classic political machinations. Omar Bashir was giving his speech at the site of the new (and biggest to date) Merowe Dam. He was cutting the ribbon on a hydro-electric project that will provide electricity to thousands of people. He added that several other big scale projects are in the works and promised to cut energy prices by 25-30%. It was a carnival of excitement. He told Ocampo that he could "eat it" (almost Bart Simpson like in his eloquence. You got to smirk). He also said that Sudan was "a proud people, a people that do not accept insults, do not accept humiliation". That is how the ICC ruling has been portrayed; as an insult to the Sudanese people. 

What Will Happen Next?

Last week, a Khartoum taxi driver was arrested for painting the words "Ocampo is coming!" (the contemporary Boogie man of Sudan) on the back of his amjad. 

This is very unlikely. The street parade last Wednesday confirmed that most people in Khartoum either support Bashir or are too scared to speak their mind. They will not hand him over. Only the pizza man who delivered the pizza to the four famished khawajas hiding inside my flat thought that "he should go to the court and defend himself". Advertisements in all the papers and all the buildings proclaim "We are with you Bashir" (granted that lots of these are government owned). It seems like this ruling has made him more popular (at least publicly). I am sure it is very different in the West and the South (but do these areas matter politically to the state?)

So the question remains, what does this all mean for the election?

I was lucky enough to attend a lecture last week by Justin Willis from Durham University. He gave a presentation on Sudan's former elections. 

I am going to massively paraphrase now (apologies): Elections are not just about people choosing their leader; they are also about people becoming individual citizens and participants in a democracy. Free and fair elections are trophies to be held up by proud nations. However, in Sudan this "individual" ideal has not always been so forthcoming. 

All past Sudanese elections have been held in a hurry because of political conditions. While in some ways, they were quite successful in terms of participation and enthusiasm in Khartoum and its surrounding areas, the South and the West did not get the same experience. To them, the elections were just more of the same- in order to vote in some cases, you literally had to know the person manning the booth. In some places, chiefs provided the list of voters and so instead of individual registration, it was more about membership in a particular kinship/tribal group. Justin Willis conceded that even in Khartoum, people tended to vote along tribal/hometown lines. Crucially, every elected government has not lasted. Military coups have come along and there has been little popular resistance. People might have voted for them, but when it comes down to it, they don't love them enough to defend them.

What Willis stressed most strongly is that elections need an enormous amount of preparation. The last election was in 1986. This means that no-one under the age of 40 has ever participated in a national election (some will have participated in university or union elections). A tremendous amount of public education will therefore be required in order to make sure people are aware of the process. Preparation is EVERYTHING. 

There are many reasons why this election will be different. First of all, it is the first time that voting will take place on one single day. It is scheduled to be held during the summer, which will make registration and polling exceedingly difficult in Southern Sudan (due to the weather). For the first time, ballot counting will also take place on site, as to reduce the potential for ballot-box stuffing. All of these factors will make this election extremely tricky to pull off. On the other hand, it means that there will be less chance of malpractice.

Crucially, this election will take place in a very different political climate. Traditionally, the Umma and NUP/DUP parties have dominated. One audience member complained "They don't even have policies. They just depend on loyalty" (which prompted Justin Willis to counter "Well, that is partly the electorate's fault for voting them in!). I think I could say the same about British or American parties too! This time, there are other (more powerful) contenders on the scene. The NIF and the SPLM/A. Where will people bestow their loyalty? or will this election be more about policies and solutions?

So many Sudanese friends say that the political corridors need to be cleaned out but there is no Sudanese Obamba hanging around at the moment. To a certain extent, the path to political power dictates what types of candidates you can be expected to get and in Sudan, that path is the military. Will this election bring any kind of change? I don't know but I certainly hope so. 

If the outside world wants to influence the Sudanese government's actions in Darfur, then it should focus on this election. PREPARATION, PREPARATION, PREPARATION! How can the outside world help encourage excitement and participation in this election?

And for those within Sudan, everyone needs to get excited about this election. If we can learn anything from the American election, it's the importance of enfranchising the disenfranchised. There are a hell of a lot of them in Sudan. 

I believe in political change. It may be slow and arduous... but eventually change comes. And sometimes, the slower the change, the more stable and appropriate the change will be. 

I really don't know if this ruling is pushing change in the right direction. 

About the only positive effect that the ICC court ruling might have (and I am really trying to see the glass half full here) is the seemingly stupid response of the government to exile ten of the biggest NGOs in the country. 

At first I though, "Darfur is going to be ****ed now." My heart quite literally sunk out of my chest. Catastrophe. But then when I spoke to some NGO friends who are being forced to leave, I realised that it was not just Darfur that is going to suffer because of this move. These NGOs work in all parts of the country. If they pull out and their programs temporarily stop, what will local people think of the government in Port Sudan, Northern Sudan, the Nuba Mountains and wherever else these organizations work? Will they be able to make the connection between lack of programs and the State's policies? Maybe this will make the government less popular....and maybe this is the silver lining? (but in the meantime, the people of Darfur are going to be suffering a lot for this little glimmer of silver)! I don't think my heart will ever quite climb back in place...

That is my two cents (or two piastres).

Laura