Sudan Military Component Wants Proportional System in Election

Al-Burhan meeting with IGAD Executive Secretary on January 31, 2022

February 6, 2022 (KHARTOUM) – The military component in Sudan said that elections must be held under a proportional system before withdrawing from national politics, at the end of the transitional period.

Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan Head of the Sovereign Council stressed his resolve to transfer power to an elected government by the end of the transitional period.

However, he told a fact-finding mission led by the IGAD Executive Secretary on January 31, that the military would withdraw under two conditions.

“The initiation of a comprehensive national reconciliation and consensus-building process,” reads a report by the IGAD body to the group leaders seen by the Sudan Tribune.

“The holding of participatory and inclusive national elections based on the principle of proportional representation,” he further stressed according to the report.

Proportional representation is a fair electoral system as it leads to reflect the votes cast for each party.

A proportional system was introduced in Sudan in 2008 to ensure a fair representation of women (30%) and political parties (15). However, the same law adopted the simple majority system for the geographic constituencies.

The report did not explain if he spoke about a partial of full proportional representation.

The IGAD is planning to mediate talks between the military, and the civil and political forces including the Forces for Freedom and Change  (FFC) over the formation of a transitional government to implement the remaining reforms and hold the general elections.

According to the report, the military said willing to form a coalition government with a broad coalition of all political actors.

The government should not just be formed by “the current assemblage of formal political parties only” said the report referring to the FFC.

This is why the constitutional declaration of 2019 should be amended to include the political groups that are banned from participating in the transition, he further requested.

The declaration, co-signed by the military component and the FFC, provides that all the political groups that were allied to the former regime should not participate in the transitional institutions.

The constitutional text governing the transition further bans the National Congress Party of former President Omer al-Bashir.

Before the coup, al-Burhan had been pressed by the FFC groups to transfer power to a civilian they will pick to lead the Sovereign Council for the second part of the transitional period, as agreed in the constitutional declaration.

The military leader and his colleagues fear facing charges for crime against humanity and grave human rights violations during the attacks on pro-democracy protesters and the post-coup crimes.

In addition, they refuse to put an end to their financial privileges and transfer their economic companies to the civilian government.

(ST)