Workshop on “Elections: Law and Regulations; the draft Electoral Law”, Sharja Hall, University of Khartoum, Sudan. 17 December 2006
Constitutional and political reform in post-CPA Sudan required, inter alia, forging a consensus on the "rules of the game" regarding elections and other contentious issues. Together with the Political Parties Law the planned new Elections Law will be the foundation of the political system in Sudan during the transition.
Given its significance the Sudan project decided to organize a workshop on “Elections: Law and Regulations" using the draft Electoral Law as a platform for providing comparative information of electoral systems design.
The workshop was held on the 17th of December 2006, Sharja Hall, University of Khartoum, and was attended by international electoral experts; political parties’ representatives; academics and students; experts and professionals; representatives of civil society organizations and women leaders; and the media.
The workshop objectives were:
- To provide comparative information to the workshop participants about international perspectives on elections and electoral systems.
- To equip government officials, political party leaders and activists and media with information regarding the choice of an electoral system.
- To enhance the capacity of political parties to handle the electoral process by increasing their knowledge on electoral system design issues.
- To contribute to the enrichment of the debate on the legal electoral framework.
- To come out with recommendations and suggestions to render the draft Electoral Law more acceptable to win the support of all political parties and political forces.
International IDEA presented a paper on Elections and Elections Regulations, presented by Mr. Ayman Ayoub, which covered issues like: comparative information on the different kinds of electoral systems; boundary delimitation; political parties systems; electoral regulations; and conflict management.
Professor Erhard Hurschka, a constitutional expert from Germany and invited by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, made a presentation covering issues such as the organization and the monitoring of the election process.
A number of important comments were made by representatives of political parties, civil society, women representatives, and the media, all of which pertained to the need to give the draft law more time for discussion and to work toward forging a consensus and agreement. At the end of the workshop, representatives of political parties and civil society organizations have drawn a number of recommendations from the deliberation of the workshop in order to use in their advocacy and campaign to bring desired change in the draft law:
- Political parties must have a clear idea about the mixed type of electoral system called for in the draft law, and the implications of it.
- Attending to the internally displaced persons (IDP) issues, government should facilitate obtaining identity cards for everyone.
- The issue of Voter Registration must be addressed by the government especially regarding the residency requirements for voters.
- Civil society should play an instrumental role in observing elections to facilitate a credible electoral process.
- Women’s political representation is an important issue that may be addressed by a form of quota system; however it is equally important to ensure effective representation of women i.e. not just numbers in parliament.
- The draft electoral law in Sudan might benefit from comparative international experience to fill the gaps in the current proposed one.
- There is a general need for more elections related activities (such as this workshop)
