The voting's over, and we wait for the results. African vote-counting tends to result in a majority for the incumbent despot of several times the population of the country, but here there is only one outcome that anyone will accept. South Sudan has been through the wringer for this one, and to prevent secession it's going to take more than a few sensible fools who trust the present government of the north more than the guerilla-run pretender to its crown.
The turnout was way higher than the 60% required to ratify the result, although the queues tailed off disappointingly towards the end of the week. Nobody was allowed the day off work to vote, a ploy by the government to boost the queues on the opening sunday for the world's media and its wide angle lenses.
In Juba the tripod-wielders have been denied the riots they craved, although intrepid reporters around the border in the north have been rewarded by some bloodshed, mostly caused by the classic too-many-weapons-too-little-sense combo. The region of Abyei just north of the border (on most maps) is the big problem, where the nomadic Arab Misseriya tend to be a bit too nomadic and a bit too Arab for the liking of the neighbouring Dinka. If South Sudan appears at the wrong end of the news in coming weeks, this will be why.
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