Sudanese protests align with democratic aspirations and dissatisfactions of the majority

Mass protests demanding political change in Sudan are consistent with democratic aspirations and dissatisfactions of a majority of the population, Afrobarometer public-opinion survey findings show.

In a survey conducted in mid-2018, Sudanese citizens preferred democracy over non-democratic alternatives by a 3-to-1 margin, and even larger majorities endorsed elections as the best way to choose the country’s leaders.

Popular dissatisfaction with the way democracy works in Sudan has been consistently high in Afrobarometer surveys in 2013, 2015, and 2018 – long before activists launched massive protests leading to a military coup that ended the 30-year rule of President Omar al-Bashir.