INTERNATIONAL POLICY ANALYSIS Elections and Conflict in Sudan ANJA DARGATZ August 2011 n The clear supremacy of the ruling National Congress Party(NCP) in North Sudan and of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement(SPLM) in the South pre-empted the occurrence of major violent incidents involving political forces during the national elec­tions in April 2010. n As part of the peace agreement, if the elections had failed the whole peace process would have been affected. Therefore, there was a strong readiness to accept the re­sults despite democratic flaws. n While the national elections were fairly peaceful, violence escalated after the(post­poned) elections in the state of South Kordofan in May 2011: the neck-and-neck race between the two parties stoked up the existing tensions in this border state. n However, the main reason for the escalation of violence was not a failure to accept the election results, but the high degree of military mobilisation and the failure to integrate fighters from the former Southern rebel army.