Electoral board starts to delimit Sudan’s constituencies

May 8, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — The National Elections Commission has started to delimit the total number of electoral constituencies in the 26 Sudanese states after receiving the result of the census.

The Sudanese presidency last Wednesday endorsed the results of the fifth national census, which SPLM seemed to have opposed saying southern Sudanese should be more heavily represented than what is counted.

The elections law voted last July by the parliament establishes a mixed electoral system. 60 per cent of the 450 MPs will be chosen through the majority elect in their geographical constituencies. It also guarantees 15% of the MPs elected through proportional representation and 25% of the parliamentary seats to women who also will be elected through the proportional representation.

Mukhtar Al-Asam, the chairman of the delimitation committee said today with this move the national elections board has already started to plan the schedule of the upcoming elections.

He added that based on the outcome of the census, a single constituency for the proportional representation requires approximately 575 thousand people, 350 thousand women are needed to form one women’s constituency, and 145 thousand people for one geographical constituency.

To determine the number of seats allocated to every state, the committee will divide the number of population in each state by the above-mentioned electoral quota.

The delimitation committee will continue to define the constituencies during the coming three months.

The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which ended two-decade civil war, calls for elections no later than 2009. But the election board delayed the election, which would be the first free one in the country since 1986, to the end of February 2010.

The election bill sets a 4 percent minimum vote needed for any party to enter parliament through the proportional representation and requires for candidates at presidential elections to get at least 200 endorsements from 18 of Sudan’s 25 states.

The new law enfranchises all Sudanese citizens over the age of 18. Candidates for election must be over the age of 40 and have no criminal record.

Independent candidates need the signatures of at least 100 local supporters.

(ST)