Sudan: Toward Democracy

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To many Sudanese Moslems, Mohammed Ahmed was more than a national hero. He was El Mahdi—the Messiah—legendary descendant of the Prophet and leader of the Whirling Dervishes, who massacred the British at Khartoum in 1885, breaking 65 years of foreign occupation.

El Mahdi's legend lives on. Victorious in the Sudan's first free elections after six years of military rule was his 29-year-old great-grandson, Sadik el Mahdi, a tall (6 ft. 3 in.), bearded economist who took honors at Oxford. In a conservative electoral sweep, El Mahdi's Umma (Nation) Party won the biggest block of seats in the new National Assembly, which will convene next month. Two other Moslem conservative groups were its only serious competition. The tightly organized Communists were defeated in the few contests they entered.

The Sudan could use a new Messiah. Dictator Ibrahim Abboud, the army general who grabbed power in 1958, was overthrown last fall, and Interim Prime Minister Serr el Khatim el Khalifa has been hard put to hold the country together. The Negro south, long restive, went into open rebellion against Arab rule, and its demands for independence forced Khalifa to go ahead with the balloting only in the northern two-thirds of the nation. A leftist minority within his own Cabinet tried to sabotage the elections altogether and seize power for itself. Under heavy leftist pressure, Khalifa turned the nation into a supply base and haven for the Congolese rebels—whose divided and defeated leaders spent most of last week conferring with him in Khartoum.

The Simbas' sojourn seemed about over, however, for El Mahdi has no sympathy for leftist causes, and he too was in Khartoum last week, busily hammering together the government that will take office when Khalifa's mandate expires next month. El Mahdi hopes to form a broad conservative coalition Cabinet as the first step in reunifying the Sudan. To end the Negro rebellion, he plans to offer the south "a large measure of local self-government," guarantee it at least three posts on the 15-member Cabinet, outlaw discrimination. He also intends to push for a constitution that would give the added stability of a presidential government—and stipulate that the Vice President be an African southerner. As for the top job, El Mahdi will pick someone else from among his conservative cronies, for he does not want it. "I do not intend to occupy public office," he says. "I shall busy myself with organization."