The History of Parliamentary Elections in Sudan
04 April, 2015KHARTOUM (SUDANOW)—The current election campaign is a series of the legislative and parliamentary electoral development in the Sudan the first parliamentary experience of which was the birth of the consultative council in North Sudan in 1943 that was composed of 28 appointed members. This council which was formed by the reigning Anglo-Egyptian condominium was dominated by the native administration leaders who held 75% of its membership and it was the genuine support to the ruling administration at the time.
This was followed by the legislative assembly which was established in late 1948 and is regarded as the first legislature formed in the pattern of the modern legislative bodies in the world. This Assembly was formed under a popular movement that was followed by submission of a memorandum to the Governor-General March 1947 by the Sudan administration conference which was formed by the Governor-General on April 22, 1946 for broader participation by the Sudanese in running the country's affairs.
The native administration leaders also dominated the Legislative Assembly, occupying 55% of its seats, though the merchants, dignitaries and intellectuals this time held 5% to 29% of the membership.
However, the appointments principle was also maintained in the Legislative Assembly with the Governor-General appointing a number of dignitaries to ensure representation of qualified members who might not find seats in the normal system of composition of the Assembly.
'The Elections in Sudan' book that was issued by the Strategic Studies Center in 1999 indicates that the Elections Law on which the formation of the Legislative Assembly was based provided for two voting systems- direct elections in the cities and municipalities and indirect elections through the electoral college in the rural regions. The Elections Law emphasized at that time the importance of representation of groups of special qualifications.
The 1953 elections which were organized under the British-Egyptian autonomy agreement of February 1953 marked the beginning of subsidence of the native administration. The 1953 Election Law is considered more advanced than the 1957 one which rescinded the graduates' constituencies and abrogated the women's voting right. Following October 1964 Revolution, which has overthrown the military regime of late General Ibrahim Abboud, the 1957 Election Law was amended to give back the women's right to vote in the geographic constituencies, a right which was not guaranteed in the 1953 Law. The amended Law also cut the eligible voting age from 21 to 18, and reinstated the graduates' constituencies raising them from five to 15.
Numerous elections have been organized in the Sudan since the Independence under different regimes, whether civilian or military governments. The dominant feature of the amendments which were introduced by the partisan governments were for the interest of the political parties, while those which were inserted by the military governments were intended to eliminate the influence of the political parties or other forces opposed to the military regimes of different leanings.
The parliaments which followed the popular upheavals of October 1964 and April 1985 (April Uprising toppled Marshal Jaafer Nimeiry) were intended to enhance the role of the modern forces which bore the brunt of those uprisings by allocation of graduates' constituencies. Some of the amendments scaled up the fortunes of the major parties, especially in the rural areas, by increasing the number and demarcation of the constituencies there and refraining from applying this in the cities and other enlightened areas.
The various regimes combined the direct and indirect elections with the appointment system. The May regime of Marshal Jaafer Nimeiry unilaterally allocated geographic and people's constituencies to guarantee representation of its organizations and allied forces. The number of members of parliament was raised during May regime.
It was noticed that none of the political parties during the civilian regimes won an absolute majority that would enable it to rule unilaterally, except in 1953 when the National Unionist Party won 52% of the seats. Yet, this majority began to subside due to a power struggle between late Ismail al-Azhary, who was then Prime Minister, and the Khatmiyah religious sect of Mirghani. In comparison, the May, Ingaz and their predecessor Abboud regime did not have such a parliamentary majority problem due to the nature of their political and parliamentary composition.
The legislative and parliamentary councils in Sudan were characterized by sharp internal disputes, even within the single party and all Sudanese parties, with exception, were faced with the risk of division, particularly from 1965 and until now and most of those divisions were sparked by personal ambitions of the party's leading figures.
The representational experience in Sudan resulted in growing numbers of the political parties from one election to another, increasing from five parties in the 1953 election to 29 parties and electoral groups in 1986. Moreover, a number of regional fronts and movements were formed and joined the representative councils, including the Bija Congress, the Nuba Mountains General Union, Darfur Renaissance Front, SANU Party (South Sudan) and other formations. The formally registered political parties exceeded 70 during the current Ingaz regime. This, in turn, resulted in an increase in the number of candidates to the presidency.
Yet another feature that characterized the Sudanese parliaments was that, in most cases, they were not influential in the decision-making process, particularly during the coalition governments in which the decision-making was left to leaders of coalition parties (e.g. the Mahdi-Mirghani encounter).
The representation of what has come to be known as the modern forces was introduced in the parliamentary system as, being aware of the importance of those forces and of their inability to contest against the sectarian and regional parties, the colonialist law-maker allocated for them several parliamentary seats by appointment in the Legislative Assembly and by election in 1953. The representation of these forces continued in the elections which were organized after those of 1965 and until now. These modern forces play a significantly important role in the political, economic and social walks of life in the Sudan. Moreover, the election laws of the 2005 Constitution gave the woman 25% of the seats in parliament.
Yet the most conspicuous feature of the Sudanese parliamentary experience was that the councils of representatives have failed in drafting an agreed upon permanent constitution for the Sudan and their last efforts ended up with the transitional constitution that was passed by the National Assembly in the wake of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).
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