Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir. FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
Sudanese parliament's minority members boycotted the House
session on Wednesday to frustrate the ratification of the controversial
elections law.
The endorsement of the laws has been
postponed twice in the past, in a bid to build consensus between the
different parliamentarian blocs.
An independent
member, Mr Mubarak Alnur, said 34 minority legislators walked out of the
House to protest the majority's bid to pass the laws.
The president
“Thirty
four out of the 490 members walked out of the session, rejecting the
ruling party's use of simple majority to ratify the law,” Mr Alnur
explained.
The protesting lawmakers were members of the
bloc comprising the Popular Congress Party (PCP), the Umma Party and
the Independents.
The areas of contention relate to the formation of the electoral
commission by the president, the election of the state governors, the
number of polling days and the voting of the Sudanese diaspora.
Mr
Alnur criticised the use of simple majority mechanism to pass the law,
describing it as a violation of the recommendations of the national
dialogue agreed on between the different political parties.
National dialogue
The
national dialogue, initiated by President Omar Bashir in January 2014,
culminated in the formation of the consensus government in 2015.
The
recommendations of the national dialogue stated that the elections law,
among other bills, should be passed by consensus among all the
legislators.
The ruling National Congress has already
nominated President Bashir to bid for a third mandate, as it pushes for
the abolition of the term limit.
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