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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Sudan
Index
Throne room and council house of an Azande chief, southern
Sudan
Courtesy Robert O. Collins
Relations between the central government and local
authorities have been a persistent problem in Sudan. Much of the
present pattern of center-periphery political relationships--
local officials appointed by authorities in Khartoum--originated
in the early part of the century. During most of the AngloEgyptian condominium period (1899-1955), the British relied upon
a system called indigenous administration to control local
governments in nonurban areas. Under this system, traditional
tribal and village leaders--nuzara (sing., nazir),
umada (sing., umda), and shaykhs--were entrusted
with responsibility for administrative and judicial functions
within their own areas and received financial and, when
necessary, military support from the central authorities.
Following World War II, pressures arising from younger and better
educated Sudanese led the British in 1951 to abandon
administration by local rulers in favor of a system of local
government councils. As they evolved under successive national
administrations following independence in 1956, a total of
eighty-four such councils were created and entrusted with varying
degrees of community autonomy. This system, however, was plagued
by problems of divided power, the councils being responsible to
the minister of local government whereas provincial governors and
district commissioners remained under the supervision of the
minister of interior. Effectiveness varied from one local
authority to another, but all suffered from inadequate finances
and a shortage of trained personnel willing to serve in small,
isolated communities. In the south, such problems were compounded
when hundreds of colonial officials were replaced by Sudanese
civil servants, almost all of whom were northerners. In many
rural areas of Sudan, the system in the early years of
independence was little different from the old indigenous
administration dominated by the conservative, traditional elite,
while in most cities the effectiveness of councils was seriously
weakened by party politics.
The Abbud regime sought to end the dual features of this
system through the 1961 Local Government Act, which introduced a
provincial commissioner appointed by the central government as
chairman of the provincial authority, an executive body of
officials representing Khartoum. The 1961 law was not intended to
be a democratic reform; instead, it allowed the central
government to control local administration despite the existence
of provincial councils chosen by local governmental and
provincial authorities.
Soon after coming to power in the military coup of 1969, the
Nimeiri government abolished local and regional government
structures. The People's Local Government Act of November 1971
designed a pyramidal structure with local community councils at
the base and progressively higher levels of authority up to the
executive councils of the ten provinces. By 1980 community
councils included an estimated 4,000 village councils, more than
800 neighborhood councils in cities and towns, 281 nomadic
encampment councils, and scores of market and industrial area
councils. In theory, membership on these local councils was based
on popular election, but in practice the councils were dominated
by local representatives of the Sudan Socialist Union, the only
political party that Nimeiri permitted to function. Above the
community councils was a second tier of local government
structures that included 228 rural councils and 90 urban
councils. A third tier consisted of thirty-five subprovincial
district councils, and at the apex were the province commissions,
presided over by the province governor appointed from Khartoum.
Although there were some changes following Nimeiri's
overthrow in 1985, the local government structures remained
relatively intact. Parliament devolved more authority to
community councils and reorganized the functions and powers of
the province commissions. In February 1991, the RCC-NS instituted
a major change in local government by introducing a federal
structure. The federalism decree divided the country into nine
states: Aali an Nil, Al Awsat, Al Istiwai, Al Khartum, Ash
Shamali, Ash Sharqi, Bahr al Ghazal, Darfur, and Kurdufan.
Generally, both the borders and names of the states are similar
to the historical nine provinces of Sudan during the colonial
period and early years of independence. The states were further
subdivided into 66 provinces and 218 local government areas or
districts. The RCC-NS appointed a governor, deputy governor, and
council of ministers for each state. These officials were
responsible for administration and economic planning in the
states. They also appointed the province and district authorities
in the states. The latter officials, for the most part the same
persons who occupied local government posts before the federal
structure was introduced, continued to be responsible for
elementary and secondary education, health, and various
government programs and services in the cities, towns, and
villages
(see
fig. 7).
Figure 7. Organization of the Government, 1991
Data as of June 1991
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