Sudan's Parliament approves much-delayed independent electoral commission

KHARTOUM: Sudan's Parliament on Monday approved an independent electoral commission, in a crucial but delayed step toward national polls laid out in the peace accord that ended 21 years of civil war.

The line-up of the nine-member commission, which was appointed by the presidency and submitted to Parliament for approval, was passed by 298 votes to 12 objections more than three months behind schedule, said an AFP reporter.

The names were drawn up by the three-man Sudanese presidency, head of state Omar al-Bashir, First Vice President and leader of the semi-autonomous South Salva Kiir and Vice President Ali Osman Taha, after lengthy negotiations.

The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), signed by North and South after a two-decade civil war, called for elections no later than 2009 as part of a democratic transition, but implementing the accord has hit major delays.

The commission is headed by Abel Alier, a former vice president of Sudan under Jaafar Nimeiri, from the Dinka tribe that dominates politics in the South.

He is a lawyer, political independent and human-rights advocate who was once close to the legendary late Southern rebel leader John Garang.

His deputy, Abdullah Ahmad Abdullah, is a professor of agriculture from Khartoum University who was also a regional governor under Nimeiri.

Two women were given positions on the commission, which will now be tasked with making all the provisions and setting a date for much-delayed elections.

Parliament approved the electoral law on July 7, two-and-a-half years late, and one week before the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor sought Bashir's arrest on 10 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

The electoral commission should have been appointed within a month of its approval and was therefore approved on Monday over three months late.

Bashir has vowed that elections would be held on time, but many analysts argue that a formal arrest warrant could see him do everything possible to hold onto power, jeopardizing the CPA, which ended the longest civil war in Africa.

Sudan's new electoral law grants women 25 percent of the seats in Parliament and introduces proportional representation by enshrining quotas for political parties in what has been billed a road toward democratic transformation.

Bashir seized power in a 1989 Islamist-backed coup that overthrew the democratically elected government. He won a new five-year term as president in Sudan's last national election in December 2000.

That election was boycotted by the opposition, and Bashir was first declared president after a 1996 poll widely denounced as fraudulent by independent observers.

Complete democratic transformation in Sudan would also require major legal reform of legislation governing the media and national security.

Under the interim national Constitution, set up after the 2005 peace agreement, all current MPs are appointed.

Bashir's National Congress Party occupies 52 percent of seats and his former Southern foes, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement which joined the national government as part of the peace deal, holds 28 percent.

Other political groups, including representatives from conflict-strewn Darfur who signed a 2006 peace deal with the Khartoum government in Nigeria, account for 20 percent.

The ICC prosecutor accused Bashir on July 14 of allegedly ordering his forces to annihilate three non-Arab groups in Darfur, masterminding murder, torture, pillaging and rape.

Darfur rebels last week dismissed a cease-fire call by Bashir as a propaganda stunt.

According to UN officials up to 300,000 people have died and over 2.2 million have fled their homes since the conflict erupted in February 2003. - AFP