Residents of the African nation of Sudan recently cast votes in the first national election in over 20 years. Official results are still forthcoming, but early indications show that President Omar Hassan al-Bashir is set to win a landslide victory. Opposition parties are threatening to boycott the results, as a statement from the U.S. White House described the election as plagued by "serious irregularities". Sudan remains a country with serious problems from conflict in Darfur and ongoing humanitarian crises in refugee camps and several drought-stricken regions. The election is also seen as prelude to another upcoming vote: a referendum of independence for Southern Sudan in 2011 that could create a new African nation. Collected here are recent photos from Sudan.
1. A Sudanese boy holds a bunch of southern Sudan flags that he and other street children picked up from the ground, after a political rally in Juba on April 09, 2010. Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir and his remaining challengers addressed supporters on the last day of campaigning for elections that have been overshadowed by opposition boycotts. The southern former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement said it was also withdrawing from simultaneous parliamentary and state elections in all northern states except the disputed Blue Nile and south Kordofan districts, after its candidate, Yasser Arman, pulled out of the presidential race. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images)
2. Internally displaced people travel on a truck to a polling station at ZamZam IDP's camp in Al Fasher, northern Darfur April 12, 2010. Observers on Monday urged Sudan to extend voting in its first open elections in 24 years after thousands of ballots were cast incorrectly and polling faced serious delays in many areas of Africa's largest country. (REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra) #
3. A Sudanese woman holds her voter registration card outside a polling station in the town of Malakal in Upper Nile state, April 11, 2010. Hundreds of thousands of Sudanese queued up to start voting on Sunday, in historic elections already marred by allegations of fraud that will test the fragile unity of a nation divided by decades of civil conflict. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #
4. A Sudanese refugee woman fills in her voting form at a polling station at the refugee camp of Zamzam at the outskirts of the Darfur town of al-Fasher, Sudan Monday, April 12, 2010 during the second day of the ongoing multiparty general elections in Sudan. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser) #
5. A polling attendant waits for voters during the second day of elections in Juba, southern Sudan, Monday, April 12, 2010. (AP Photo/Pete Muller) #
6. Internally displaced people ride donkeys during a sandstorm outside ZamZam IDP's camp in Al Fasher, northern Darfur April 13, 2010. (REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra) #
7. Southern Sudanese citizens line up to vote at a polling station in Terekeka, Southern Sudan, Sunday April 11, 2010. (AP Photo/Pete Muller) #
8. Sudanese voters queue to vote at a polling station in the outskirts of the south-central town of Yambio in southern Sudan on April 12, 2010. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images) #
9. A man sits in the shade as he waits to sell goats in an open market in Kapoeta in Budy county, Eastern Equatoria State, south Sudan April 4, 2010. (REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic) #
10. Wearing his trademark cowboy hat, Southern Sudan President and elections candidate Salva Kiir speaks at the last election rally in Juba, Southern Sudan, Friday April 9, 2010. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay) #
11. Radio Miraya host Lubna Lasu broadcasts the Betna Weekend Edition program on April 10, 2010 in the southern Sudanese city of Juba. The show focuses on the elections and women's rights and is broadcast across South Sudan. There were no televised debates, much less Twittering or blogging, as candidates sought to get their messages across to the people of south Sudan in an election campaign that wrapped up on April 9. Instead, it was mostly the transistor radio for the inhabitants of the dirt-poor semi-autonomous region, where most people are illiterate and few are wealthy enough or lucky enough even to have electricity for a television. (AFP/Getty Images) #
12. A girl holds a teddy bear given to her by a UNICEF employee visiting a hospital in Malakal in Southern Sudan's Upper Nile state, April 12, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #
13. In this photo taken Tuesday, April 13, 2010, Sudanese students run to attend evening prayers at the Modhawen Ban Quranic school, 50 km (31 mi) east of Khartoum, Sudan. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil) #
14. Two-year-old Dhoal, a child suffering from severe malnutrition, is swarmed with flies as he sits on a bed at a local hospital in the southeast Sudanese town of Akobo on April 10, 2010. The population in Akobo and the surrounding counties in the Jonglei state in southern Sudan are suffering from the effects of a devastating drought and tribal conflict. Aid officials have called Akobo the "hungriest place on earth," after a survey showed that 46 percent of children under five are malnourished. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images) #
15. Sudanese workers are silhouetted as they take a rest from making mud bricks to build houses, in Khartoum April 14, 2010. (REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah) #
16. An internally displaced woman uses a pick-axe to chip off clay to make bricks at Abu Shouk IDP's camp in Al Fasher, northern Darfur April 14, 2010. (REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra) #
17. A Sudanese refugee girl works at a mud brick factory, during day four of the elections in Sudan at the refugee camp of Abou Shouk on the outskirts of the Darfur town of el Fasher, Sudan, Wednesday, April 14, 2010. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser) #
18. Sudanese women sit barefoot while waiting in line outside a polling station in the town of Malakal in Upper Nile state April 13, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #
19. A man votes at a polling station located at a local school in the Darfur town of el Fasher, Sudan Sunday, April 11, 2010. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser) #
20. Sudanese President and presidential candidate Omar al-Bashir prepares to cast his vote for Sudan's first multiparty elections in decades in Khartoum, Sunday, April 11, 2010. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil) #
21. A Sudanese Dinka tribeswoman stands outside her hut as a storm gathers in the village of Mvolo in Western Equatorial State, April 7, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #
22. Sudanese refugee children hold their writing boards while attending a local school in the refugee camp of Zamzam at the outskirts of the Darfur town of al-Fasher, Sudan Tuesday, April 13, 2010. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser) #
23. Sudanese youth play soccer in Khartoum April 14, 2010. (REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah) #
24. Women from a local tribe sit in an open market in Kapoeta in Budy county, eastern Equatoria State, south Sudan, April 4, 2010. (REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic) #
25. Villagers from Dadinga tribe fight for food after World Food Program (WFP) staff distributed food supplies in the village of Lauro in Budy county in Eastern Equatoria State, south Sudan, April 2, 2010. (REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic) #
26. A Muslim boy prays in front of a mosque, near Khartoum, Sudan, Saturday, April 10, 2010. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil) #
27. A man sweats in the heat as he waits for his turn to vote at a polling station in the town of Malakal in Upper Nile state, April 11, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #
28. Former US president Jimmy Carter, in Sudan with a team of 70 election observers, smiles during an interview for a TV crew at a polling station in Juba in southern Sudan on April 13, 2010. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images) #
29. Sudanese students walk near Al-Nahrein University in Khartoum on April 18, 2010. (PATRICK BAZ/AFP/Getty Images) #
30. A Southern Sudan army officer keeps an eye on crowds gathered for Southern Sudan President and elections candidate Salva Kiir's last election rally in Juba, Southern Sudan, Friday April 9, 2010. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay) #
31. Southern Sudanese election observers and political party agents witness the start of ballot counting in Juba, Friday, April 16, 2010. (AP Photo/ Pete Muller) #
32. Straw huts appear on a mostly dusty parched plain in the southeastern Sudanese town of Akobo on April 10, 2010. The population in Akobo and the surrounding counties neighboring Akobo in the Jonglei state in southern Sudan are suffering the effects of a devastating drought and tribal conflict. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images) #
33. A boy uses a hammer to break rocks into smaller pieces to be sold for construction purposes in Juba, south of the Sudan capital March 31, 2010. (REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic) #
34. A Sudanese woman with ethnic Nuer tribal scarification stands outside her grass hut in the town of Malakal in Upper Nile state, April 10, 2010. The Nuer receive facial markings during initiation into adulthood. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) #
35. A Sudanese man sits on a camel as he looks at the pyramids in the Meroe desert, north of Khartoum, on February 26, 2010. There was not a tourist in sight as the sun set over sand-swept pyramids at Meroe, but archaeologists say the Nubian Desert of northern Sudan holds mysteries to rival ancient Egypt. (ASHRAF SHAZLY/AFP/Getty Images) #
36. A Sudanese Sufi student holds his wooden board or Lawha as he recites verses of the Koran at the Qadiriya Badiriya Sufi mosque in the village of Umm Dawban, 40kms north of Khartoum, on April 13, 2010. Sufism is generally understood by scholars and Sufis to be the inner, mystical, or psycho-spiritual dimension of Islam. Today, however, many Muslims and non-Muslims believe that Sufism is outside the sphere of Islam. (PATRICK BAZ/AFP/Getty Images) #
37. A woman watches television in her house in the outskirts of Sudan's capital, Khartoum April 5, 2010. (REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra) #
38. Sudanese National Elections Commission staff begin vote counting at a polling station in Sudan's capital Khartoum, April 16, 2010. (REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra) #
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