To Be Continued

For ten days, in town and jungle and across miles of desert, the people of the Sudan cast their ballots in the first election since their country became wholly independent in 1956. Among the sophisticated Arabs of Khartoum, the balloting went off without a hitch. But in the western deserts, election officials in jouncing jeeps had to chase down camel-riding nomads to collect their ballots. In the Nuba region, voter identification was complicated by the local habit of naming all eldest sons Cuckoo. Several precincts in the eastern mountains reported that voters were showing up with entirely different names from those under which they registered, because the local practice is always to change names after the annual religious wrestling matches.

The issues were many and complex, but to the outside world, one towered over all: whether staunchly pro-Western Prime Minister Abdullah Khalil, head of the Umma (Nation) Party, would remain in power or be replaced by pro-Egyptian ex-Premier Ismail el Azhari, head of the National Unionist Party.

To the accompaniment of a constant stream of anti-Western vituperation from Cairo, as well as the jingle of Egyptian money, El Azhari put on a vigorous, glad-handing campaign. He played upon the anti-religious sentiment of the younger generation by hammering away disdainfully at Premier Khalil's personal devotion to the Moslem cult of aging Abdel Rahman el Mahdi. He lashed out at the Baghdad Pact, accused the Premier of being pro-American, pro-British, and pro-imperialist. While carefully ignoring Nasser's blatant maneuvers to take over the Sudan and his newly asserted claim on more than 6,000 miles of northern territory, El Azhari spoke glowingly of the desirability of a "common defense pact" with Egypt.

Premier Khalil had one powerful argument: his record. An outstanding administrator, he has kept his budget balanced, poured his surpluses into a series of development projects that have made the Sudan Africa's land of promise. He has resisted all Soviet attempts to infiltrate, sternly rebuffed both the blandishments and the threats that flood in from Egypt.

Khalil's rugged independence paid off. Last week, with most of the ballots counted, Khalil's Umma Party was winner of 75 seats to El Azhari's 45. But Khalil needs another twelve votes to muster a majority in the 173-man Parliament, and both sides were busy wooing adherents among the minor parties and independents. Said one cynical observer: "For the next few days, you won't be able to sleep around here for the clink of money."

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