So Far So Good In Sudan

Long War: The first hurdle has been overcome in the big Sudanese election, a monster turnout guarantees that the the 60% voter turn-out mandate will be reached. Anything under this threshold and the vote is null and void. The bad guys need to launch a huge wave of violence to hold back the voters but so far have managed only one measly attack with 10 southerners killed. There was other sporadic violence here and there but only the one attack attributable to an Islamic tribal militia up till now with five days of voting left. The leader of the tribe accused of making the attack claims that his people weren't involved. This raises the possibility that the attack was actually delivered by an Al-Qaeda affiliate.
Jimmy Carter is hurting matters by blundering about and saying stupid stuff to the press. He told the media that North Sudan is willing to take all the national debt of the two combined countries, leaving South Sudan debt-free. Of course this isn't true. Sen. Jim Kerry seems to have stepped in and is riding herd on Carter while the UN is aggressively deploying its 10,000 strong peacekeepers to tamp down tribal violence.
The Western press is portraying the election as a purely local event, and not a very big deal. However the referendum continues to send shock waves across the jihadist community. Recently AQIM (Al-Qaeda North Africa) has stepped up its kidnapping activity and only a few days ago had a big shootout with French Special Forces, where numerous bad guys and innocent hostages were killed.
The possibility that Al-Qaeda has interfered with the election means that our best and only friend is still the CIA.