Capital City Inhabitants Must Not Be Allowed to Vote

Let me take the Sudan, my country, as an example.

The inhabitants of the capital city of Sudan, Khartoum, must not be allowed to organize, participate or vote in any national elections. This should be the rule if the Sudanese people really want to ensure fair and free elections. These people can only have local elections; but not national elections at all.

In many underdeveloped countries the percentage of the capital city population to the total population (in many cases it is over 20%) is too big to let the disadvantaged to be heard . Letting the many millions in Khartoum (5.3 million from a total of 30.9 million in Sudan), who are exploiting the Sudan, to choose governments is clearly against the well-being and interests of the poor majority of the Sudanese nation and the overwhelming neglected Sudanese land.

All unjust regimes worked mainly to empower “Tamkeen, in Arabic” their own associates at the expenses of national interests. They systematically plotted to disadvantage the rest of the Sudanese nation while these bad regimes favored their attendants and cronies and gave them unfair and illegal access to power and wealth. Of course, the capital of the country was their first target. So they encouraged their entourage to move and settle in the capital.

The national capital is no longer “national” it turned into all bad regimes main stronghold. The inhabitants of Khartoum served corrupt regimes who in turn served them. And since the growth of the capital was unnatural and designed by these regimes using dishonest policies then the capital became the central pot of corruption in all fields and in all aspects.

Khartoum, Omdurman and Khartoum-Bahari, the three districts of Khartoum capital state, are very selfish and opportunistic, and they do not represent the natural composition of the Sudanese nation nor the national interests and aspirations of the majority of the Sudanese peoples.

The current capital of Sudan is the accumulation of all the serious and powerful corruption in Sudan. It represents all the damaging regimes that ruined the Sudan for decades since the beginning of false Independence from the colonial regime– actually cronies’ takeover- and they served the self-interests of individuals and tribes involved in the long history of corruption in the Sudan.

The rest of Sudan and the Sudanese nation will never get chances of justice, development or peace as long as the inhabitants of Khartoum have voting powers.

I believe that this is also true for all African countries. Let the rural areas have greater say in the choice of local representatives and national governments! This way fair development and wider participation will lead to social and economic justice.