DOMINIC ALUNAI (28) is beaming as he walks from his local polling station at the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Juba, South Sudan. He has just cast a vote for the first time and is standing against the church wall, taking in the moment.
“This was my dream since I was a child,” says the manual labourer, showing an ink-splodged finger that confirms he has just voted. “Today it has come true.”
Alunai is one of 16 million registered voters in Sudan, most of whom were expected to begin voting yesterday in the country’s first multi-party election in 24 years.
Official results aren’t expected for at least another week, with the polls staying open until tomorrow. However, President Umar al-Bashir is virtually assured of victory because of a boycott by his main opponents.
In Juba, Salva Kiir, the president of south Sudan, was among the first to vote, although he had to wait 20 minutes for his polling station to open. Voting for the first time in his life, he said he hoped the elections would lead to the “formation of a democratic process in south Sudan”.
Kiir is running against former foreign minister Lam Akol for the leadership of the semi-autonomous government of south Sudan, ahead of a referendum on independence next year.
In Khartoum, where Bashir was also among the first to vote, former US president Jimmy Carter, who is monitoring the election, said that despite some early problems, voting was proceeding smoothly.
In the run-up to the elections, opposition parties accused Bashir’s ruling National Congress of fraud.
Their fears were raised when it emerged that ballot papers were being produced by a company with links to the state.
This prompted Kiir’s Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement to call a boycott of the election in the north of the country and in Darfur.
This has led to suggestions that there are serious splits within the SPLM over the decision to boycott elections in the north, says Suliman Baldo, Africa director at the International Centre for Transitional Justice.
Bashir has threatened to suspend the planned referendum on independence for the south if the SPLM refused to fully take part in the election process.
However, “a consolidation of the SPLM’s rule through next week’s elections, could give it the legitimacy to promote stability, enabling a decrease in the violence and ensure a peaceful secession” .