Salva Kiir goes 4th (in his cowboy hat)

Salva Kiir – along with his trademark oversized cowboy hat, which is surely the source of his authority – is chairman of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement, and current head of South Sudan. Things aren’t looking good for him at the moment. As well as being outmaneuvered by the North in this week’s electoral process, the SPLM itself is riven by splits. At one point last week the party announced it had decided to boycott the entire electoral process, forcing observers into a minor panic and Kiir into a hurried denial. It seems the party is not completely in agreement with Kiir’s strategy vis a vis the North, which some call long term and others self-serving. For once, Omar al-Bashir’s right hand man Nafie Ali Nafie had his finger on the button, accusing the SPLM of working for its own interests rather than those of the people of the south. When even the Sudanese government can fling mud that sticks, you know there’s a problem…