A Chink of Light for Democracy?

I fled South Sudan, amid fierce fighting in the region, in September 1990. I got an opportunity to study in the United Kingdom and fearing for my life, I left the country. My wife joined me eight months later, and our four children have all been born here.

Three years ago, I decided to come back to Sudan, to work towards its reconstruction.

Elections, due to be held between April 11-13, are crucial for determining whether Sudan can be set on the path to true democracy, or whether my family will have to flee once again in the face of renewed fighting.

When I first left Sudan, Omar al-Bashir had just taken power in Khartoum and, in order to consolidate his power base, was determined to confront the rebels in the south.

I spent 17 years living in the UK under democracy.

I vividly recall how, one cold morning shortly after I had arrived, I saw a puppet of Margaret Thatcher, then British prime minister, hanging on a rope. Thatcher had resigned the previous night and the puppet was supposed to symbolise a political suicide.

I saw John Major take over as prime minister, and subsequently witnessed Tony Blair win power under a rebranded Labour Party. More recently, Gordon Brown assumed office after Blair stepped down. It will be interesting to see what May 6 – when the British next go to the polls – will have in store.

This is how democracy works in the UK – like a well-oiled machine, with no suggestion that the perpetually-turning gears will suddenly seize up.

Not so in Sudan. Following independence in 1956, the country has seen power changing hands between civilian rule and military juntas three times. Since independence, Sudan has been ruled longer by despotic military regimes than by democratically elected governments.

Al-Bashir himself was a general before he came to power and his party, the National Congress Party, NCP, has been the longest and most repressive military regime to rule in Sudan’s history.

The current elections are not the first time attempts have been made to propel the country into a democratic path through national polls.

The first such attempt was in 1953, three years before Sudan’s unilateral declaration of independence.

Justin Willis, director of the British Institute in Eastern Africa, a research organisation, recently wrote of the 1953 election, “The protagonists had come to share a sense of the significance of the event itself, which made the result a matter of secondary importance. The Sudan election offers an early example of what might be called the fetishisation of the ballot in Africa; in the end, what mattered most was that the democratic ritual... was seen to be performed.”

More than half a century later, we are again approaching an election in which the “democratic ritual” counts more than the outcome. Reading Willis’ analysis of the 1953 election reminds me of Solomon’s wisdom, from the Bible: nothing is new under the sun – we have been there, seen it and done. Here, in this election, history repeats itself.

In 1953, the stakeholders (namely Sudanese parties and the British and Egyptian colonial administrators) were more concerned about the Sudanese going through the motions of casting a secret ballot, rather than who or what the results would bring. There were talks about free and fair elections. There were questions as to whether or not the electoral commission was even-handed. There were countless disagreements between stakeholders, accompanied by frequent walkouts and threats to boycott elections. There were reports of vote-rigging and bribery.

This was in 1953. All this could be said about Sudan’s election in 2010. And yet I still have hope.

I had not intended to return to Sudan. But, at the start of 2005, the first tentative steps towards democracy in the country were taken, with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, CPA, which effectively ended Sudan's 23-year civil war.

To be honest, I have been repeatedly frustrated by signs that the peace agreement is not being properly implemented.

But in the summer of 2007, there was a chance for me to return to the country and help in its reconstruction.

This was the first time in 17 years since my wife and I had set foot inside the country, and the first ever for our four British-born kids.

The emotion that I felt as I left London was one of almost euphoric disbelief. Only a few months before, returning home had just seemed like a wistful dream, but here we were, on our way back. We were met at Khartoum's airport by excited crowds of relatives and friends, for a joyful, albeit tearful, reunion.

Thirty months since our arrival back in the country, Sudan is approaching a key point in the CPA. If fair elections are held this year, then South Sudan could get the chance to go to the polls again in 2011, to vote on whether it wants to separate from the north.

These milestones are not only important for the legitimacy of the CPA, which set the country on the path to democracy. They are also absolutely vital to me and my family.

These events will determine whether or not I and my family members will be forced to flee again in the event of renewed hostilities, to return to seek refuge in the UK should things not work according to plan.

It looks doubtful that the election will change very much, but, despite my earlier cynicism, I think that the election has opened up a political space for other parties, besides the ruling NCP and Sudanese People's Liberation Party, SPLM. This is a good beginning to democracy.

Of course, the two ruling parties have an unfair advantage over other parties, since they control state resources: security apparatus, military, police, legal, finance, and most important of all, the media.

The NCP will probably continue to dominate the Sudanese political spectrum for years to come, but this election could represent a loosening of its hold on power, forcing it into compromise agreements to legislate laws and pass crucial decisions.

The road to democracy will no doubt be a long and arduous one. Yet we have to begin somewhere. And this is it.

Dr John Akec is assistant professor at University of Juba in Khartoum.
He writes a column in the Citizen newspaper in Sudan, and keeps a blog http://www.JohnAkecSouthSudan.blogspot.com.