Sudan's parliament passes electoral law
July 7, 2008 (Khartoum ,STRONG>NSV) - In its sitting on 7th Monday, July 2008, Sudan's parliament passed the long awaited electoral law in Omdurman, paving the way for the 2009 general elections. The law was passed by majority vote with 393 members attending. More than 260 were in favor of the new law that nearly took 18 months to prepare. The signed law underwent 68 adjustments containing 110 provisions.
Ahmed Ibrahim Atahir, speaker of national assembly said; "the election law shows great victory for political participation. The majority vote indicates that Sudanese want at this moment to return to multi-partism."
One of the greatest victories of this law is the stipulation of 25% of women representation as required by the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which ended 21 years of bloody war betweeen the North and the South.
However, according to Reuters, opposition parties criticized "using a separate list of women candidates for the election of 25 percent allocated for women." The opposition said they would have prefered to have women run on the main parties' list. They also criticized using 4% as minimum requirement for parties to enter parliament.
Sudan People's Liberation Movement(SPLM), which signed the CPA with the National Congress Party (NCP) of President Beshir in 2005, voiced its concern. Yasir Saed Arman, SPLM Deputy Secretary General for Northern Sector, said, "this is another chance for us to implement CPA."
However, SPLM said there is a serious need of other laws, such as press, media, national security and criminal laws to ensure free and fair elections in 2009. Arman said, "We cannot have free and fair elections without having [those] laws".
The coming in of Sudan's election law is a test for Sudanese to have another occasion for democratic transformation in 2009. Sudan will witness real change when many political parties participate fully in political decision making in the country for the first time in two decades. The historic law shall give time table for the forth coming elections. It is not yet known when a genuine, independent electoral commission will be formed in the Sudan. The formation of independent electoral commission rests with Sudanese collegial presidency.
