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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Sudan
Index
The RCC-NS dissolved the elected legislature when it seized
power in 1989. As of mid-1991 no plans had been announced for new
elections or for the creation of a new representative body.
Nevertheless, Sudan's postindependence political history,
characterized by alternating periods of parliamentary democracy
and military rule, suggested that there was support for a
popularly elected assembly. The country's first parliament, the
Legislative Assembly, was established during the final years of
British colonial rule, and the country's first multiparty
elections were held in 1948. Subsequently, the Constituent
Assembly drew up a transitional constitution that provided for a
two-chamber legislature: an indirectly elected upper house,
called the Senate, and a House of Representatives elected by
direct popular vote. The British model of government was
followed, that is, a parliamentary system in which the political
party winning the most seats in the lower house formed the
government. Multiparty elections for the House of Representatives
were held in 1953 and 1958. The second parliament was in session
only a few months before being forcibly dissolved by a military
coup. Parliamentary government was restored briefly between 1964
and 1969, during which time there were two multiparty elections
for the House of Representatives.
Following the precedent set by the 1958 military coup,
Nimeiri dissolved parliament and banned political parties when he
seized power in May 1969. Five years later, in 1974, he permitted
controlled elections for a new People's Assembly. In this and
subsequent balloting, candidates had to be approved by the
government, and persons with known or suspected ties to the
banned political parties were barred from participation. The
People's Assembly never functioned as an institution independent
of the executive and was dissolved after Nimeiri's overthrow in
April 1985. The first genuinely democratic parliamentary
elections since 1968 were held in April 1986, but no political
party won a majority of seats. During the next three years, six
successive coalition governments were formed. The assembly was
dissolved and political parties again banned following the June
30, 1989, military coup.
Data as of June 1991
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