Elections body waits for census results to allocate MPs’ seats
April 21, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — The National Elections Commission (NEC) will not proceed with the delimitation of constituencies for the upcoming elections until receiving the result of the census, a Sudanese official said today.
Mukhtar Al-Asam, a NEC member said today they are waiting for the results of the fifth national census to determine what number of geographical and proportional constituencies should be attributed to every state.
He further said they expect some states will get between 30 to 40 constituencies while others will have 10 constituencies, in accordance with the size of its population.
The National Elections Act of 2008, which adopting a mixed electoral system, lays the basis for the first fair elections in the country since the Islamist coup d’état of 1989. For the elections of the 450 members of the National Assembly, the elections law set 270 (60%) geographical constituencies, 68 (15%) constituencies for the proportional representation of political parties and 112 (25%) for the representation of women.
The fifth Sudan Population and Housing Census, a milestone in the implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), was conducted from 22th to 30th April 2008. It was the first all-inclusive census for people of southern Sudan since Sudan became independence in January 1956.
The Sudanese government is expected to announce soon the controversial results of the fifth census. Two weeks ago the Committee for the follow-up and control of the Sudan fifth population census published the “positive” conclusions and reports of international experts who had monitored the counting operations in its various stages.
However the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement has given indications that it is contesting the census results. Pagan Amum, the SPLM secretary general early this month disclosed there is disagreement between northern and southern Sudan census commissions over the results of the census.
Pagan added “the result may be questionable and we do not know whether it would be valid ground for the upcoming general elections,” before suggesting that “former statistics such as the 1956 census” be relied on instead.
(ST)