Sudan paves way for election

2008-07-07 21:16

Khartoum - Sudan's parliament on Monday approved a new electoral law, a crucial step toward scheduled national elections and a democratic transition laid out in peace arrangements after a 21 year civil war.

For the first time in Sudan, the law grants women 25% of seats in the national assembly and introduces proportional representation into the biggest country in Africa by enshrining quotas for political parties.

The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, signed by north and south after a devastating two-decade civil war, calls for elections no later than 2009, although efforts to implement the accord have hit major delays.

The legislation spent months being debated by the electoral commission before being presented to parliament, where appointed members on Monday approved the bill by crying out their assent or dissent, said an AFP reporter.

In keeping with the new law, 60% of MPs will be elected directly by voters in local constituencies.

The other 40% will be shared out by the winners of different electoral lists that will guarantee women a 25% quota and political parties 15%.

Peace deal

Under the interim national constitution, set up after the 2005 peace agreement, all current MPs are appointed.

President Omar al-Beshir's National Congress Party (NCP) occupies 52% of the 450 seats and his former southern foes, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement which joined national government as part of the peace deal, holds 28%.

Other political groups classified as northern have 14% representation and other "southerners" 6%.

Beshir seized power in a 1989 Islamist-backed coup that overthrew the democratically-elected government. He won a new five-year term as president during Sudan's last national election in December 2000.

Those elections were boycotted by the opposition, both in the north and south. Beshir was first declared elected president in a 1996 poll that was widely denounced as fraudulent.

- AFP