However, he proved unable to bring all the provincial interests into a common front.[1] Although, the Front was popular from its creation with Fur because of its founder's ethnic connections, it was open to all Darfuris; its name suggesting that "development" should be the primary concern of political action. By the time of the February 1968 election, the politics had become ethnically polarized between rival factions of the Umma Party. Sadiq al-Mahdi, calculating that the province's demographics favored the "African" tribes, successfully courted the DDF, leaving Imam al-Hadi to mobilize the "Arab" vote.