Constitutional body postpones discussion on Sudan’s elections law

February 22, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — The national body to review the constitution has decided to give Sudan’s peace partners further time to find out a joint position on the disputed articles in the elections law.

The National Constitutional Review Commission has decided to postpone a meeting scheduled for Saturday February 23, to allow the National Congress Party and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement to agree on the disputed article in the project of the electoral bill.

The disputed articles in the project of law deal with proportional representation, women representation and the number of constituencies. The SPLM, backed by the opposition forces, tries to persuade the National Congress Party (NCP) to accept a common position that it shares with rest of the political forces in the countries.

In its last meeting on February 9, the NCRC discussed the electoral system without going in the disputed articles on the proportional representation, articles 29 to 40 of the draft law.

The SPLM position is to distribute the constituencies 50% elected by proportional representation system and 50% of the seats are elected by majority election system. Women are to be represented by 50% of the proportional representation lists.

The NCP wants 60% for the majority election system and 40% for the proportional representation system. Regarding women, it proposes to establish separate lists on the state level and the list that obtains the highest votes will have all the seats.

The SPLM says the state forms a constituency but the NCP proposes that all the Sudan is one constituency in the proportional representation except for the women, the state is the constituency. In this case the list that obtains the simple majority of vote obtains all the seats dedicated women to the state.

(ST)