That ‘s normal I’ve been told but still, I have difficulties to go with it sometimes.
I'll make 2 post as too many stuff happened.

First of all, the coming elections:

Sudan’s URRP leader to run for presidency in 2010
The Umma Reform and Renewal Party (URRP) announced today that it has nominated its leader Mubarak Al-Fadil to run for president in the April 2010 elections making it the third party in the country to name its candidate.
Al-Fadil was appointed by Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir as a presidential adviser for economic affairs in 2002 before being removed in October 2004. He has became one of the fiercest critics of the NCP ever since.
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article33680

SPLM ends nomination of candidates in Sudan
The leadership of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) today confirmed ending of the nomination of candidates aspiring for parliamentary and executive seats as state governors across the country.
"Their names will be made public no later than 14 January 2010 after thorough discussions from political bureau," he said.
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article33690

As I said previously, officials actually in post will have to resign to conduct electoral campaign. If that’s not a problem for North opposition (they are not in power) and Bashir (he just doesn’t care), this is a huge security breach for SPLM in South. They better choose wisely.

Then the referendum
It’s not me who say that, for ones, but:

Sudanese NCP official criticizes referendum law as ‘recipe for war’

The Sudanese presidential adviser Ghazi Salah Al-Deen Al-Attabani and the leader of the National Congress parliamentary bloc criticized a portion of the referendum law adopted in the national assembly last month saying it contains a ‘recipe of war’ in it.
Al-Attabani voiced doubts about the meaning of a partnership with a “secessionist movement that does not even recognize Sudan’s independence”. He said the SPLM is proposing the New Sudan project which he described as an incriminating proposal because it “criminalizes the history of Sudan and does not even recognize its independence”.
The NCP official also accused the SPLM of failure because of lack of clarity in putting forward the New Sudan project adding that this is also due to the paralysis of its political will.
He also referred to the Juba conference held last September under the auspices of the SPLM which included Northern opposition parties saying that it lost its moral legitimacy and was effectively a venue to put the NCP on trial.
And then came the crazy news:
South Sudan independence a “reality”, NCP official says
Al-Dardiri Mohamed Ahmed, a leading figure at the NCP, was quoted by local press as saying that the separation of the south from the north became the “reality and inevitable” blaming the Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) for this outcome.
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article33731

To be realistic, at the moment, there are 8 tanks and ACP, illegally imported from Kenya by GoSS that are stuck in the mud on Juba road guarded by SPLA beating up SAF soldiers… I am not sure they will wait for referendum to go at war.

PS: Stan, I do not forget your question. It’s coming. Give me time, I’ve several hundreds mails to respond to and a shower to take.