Social Science Research Council

The National Democratic Institute has just released its latest report on public opinion in Sudan. Entitled Imagining the Election, the report explores what citizens in Southern Sudan and the Three Areas know and expect of the country’s planned 2010 vote.

Based on 78 focus group discussions with 964 citizens in Southern Sudan, Abyei, Southern Kordofan and [...]

One of the most encouraging outcomes from the last few weeks of consultations and hearings in Darfur and Khartoum, conducted by the African Union Panel, has been to highlight the extent to which there is a consensus about the kind of peace process needed and the issues that need to be discussed and resolved. There [...]

This posting introduces a new report by Conflict Dynamics International, on national elections and the prospects for political accommodation in Sudan.
National elections – currently scheduled to take place during February 2010 – are rightly being viewed as a major step forward in democratic transformation of the political system and institutions in the Sudan. However, elections [...]

A new report by the Rift Valley Institute, warns that next year’s election in Sudan is in jeopardy unless measures are taken to curb malpractice, ensure press freedom, and reach voters living beyond the central area of the country.
A summary of Elections in Sudan: Learning from Experience, is below. The full report is available on [...]

For a free and fair election there is strong need for creating a conducive environment. We are only nine months away from the election date and far too little has been done.
Many laws which contradict the Interim National Constitution (Bill of Rights) are still in place with no serious intention from the National Congress [...]

By looking at the results of the last two democratic elections in Sudan, we can use them to predict the outcome of the forthcoming election next year. The circumstances of the previous four democratic elections and next year election are different as all the previous democratic elections came after the overthrow of dictators, but [...]

The cover of Paul Collier’s new book, Wars, Guns, and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places (Harper Collins, 2009) is graced by a picture of Darfurian rebels. It is apt. Although the book says little specifically on Darfur–or indeed Sudan–the whole argument is highly relevant to the Sudanese predicament, and especially the 2010 elections.

Collier problematizes the [...]

“Is there anybody who will vote for unity?” That incredulous question, posed by a Southern Sudanese participant in a public opinion study in late 2005, reflects the extent to which Southerners assume that the outcome of the 2011 referendum is a forgone conclusion. In four separate National Democratic Institute (NDI) studies comprising close [...]

This essay deals with possibilities of a mismanaged democratic transformation in Sudan. This is conditioned by a ruling party, resistant to change and weak opposition political parties and civil society, in a situation in which part of the country (the South) is threatening separation. In addition, the electoral timetable—now set for February 2010—is overshadowed by the ICC arrest warrant against the President of the Republic and the fact that barely ten months after the scheduled announcement of the results, the exercise in the right of self-determination for Southern Sudan is due to go ahead. In this context, will the elections serve the purpose of democratic transformation, or will they merely be a plebiscite on the rulers of the country?

The US Institute of Peace has just published an important briefing on the question of how elections can be held in Darfur under the current circumstances. It points to the all the obvious difficulties: the lack of security in many areas, the fact that many Darfurians support unregistered opposition parties such as the SLM, the [...]