Sudan split on 2010 poll
Former opposition groups from Sudan’s restive Christian and animist south are threatening to boycott April 2010 polls promised in a peace deal that ended a 21 year civil war between itself and the Muslim north. They want laws on national security and the media changed by November 30, according to Reuters. Most of the country’s oil comes from the south, which will make the first multi-party elections in more than two decades a very hot potato. The parties are presently bickering over who is eligible to vote after earlier elections were delayed for the umpteenth time. The peace deal gave the south a semi-autonomous government and provided for a referendum on independence by 2011. The stakes in the game of political one-upmanship are high, with a possible reversion to civil war. The more populated north wants a 75% threshold for a vote on the south’s independence, while the south insists on 50% plus one vote.
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