GOVERNMENT Overview: The national government is an authoritarian regime with the trappings of a parliamentary system. A new constitution, approved in 1998, provides for separate executive, legislative, and judicial functions and contains guarantees of freedom of association, religion, and thought. Some clauses have been in suspension since late 1999. The executive branch is headed by a president, who currently serves also as prime minister and commander in chief of the armed forces. Cabinet members are appointed by the president with approval by parliament. The legislative branch is composed of the 360-seat National Assembly, of which 270 members are popularly elected and 90 specially selected by a National Congress composed of influential interest groups. Parliamentarians serve four-year terms and have been supportive of the government. Sudan’s government is run by an alliance of the military and the National Congress Party, formerly the National Islamic Front, and has generally pursued an Islamist agenda. The current president is Lieutenant General Umar Hassan Ahmad al Bashir, who came to power in a military coup in 1989. He was popularly elected in 1996 and 2000.
Administrative Divisions: Sudan is divided into 26 states (wilayat): A'ali an Nil, Al Bahr al Ahmar, Al Buhayrat, Al Jazirah, Al Khartum, Al Qadarif, Al Wahdah, An Nil al Abyad, An Nil al Azraq, Ash Shamaliyah, Bahr al Jabal, Gharb al Istiwa'iyah, Gharb Bahr al Ghazal, Gharb Darfur, Gharb Kurdufan, Janub Darfur, Janub Kurdufan, Junqali, Kassala, Nahr an Nil, Shamal Bahr al Ghazal, Shamal Darfur, Shamal Kurdufan, Sharq al Istiwa'iyah, Sinnar, and Warab.
Provincial and Local Government: Beginning in 1983, Sudan was divided into five regions in the North and three in the South, each headed by a military governor. In 1997 the eight regions were replaced with 26 states, whose senior officials are appointed by the president. State budgets are also allocated from Khartoum.
Judicial and Legal System: The constitution provides for a High Court, an attorney general, and civil and special religious courts; it also grants recognition to tribal courts. The legal system is based on English common law and Islamic law. As of March 1991, strict Islamic Law was imposed on the country except for the three southern provinces. It applies in the northern states regardless of religious affiliation.
Electoral System: A national electoral commission determines guidelines for elections and referendums. Voting eligibility is defined as 17 years of age. The last national elections, held in December 2000, were boycotted by opposition parties, who viewed them as unfair.
Political Parties: Following the military coup of 1989, all political parties were banned. The constitution of 1998 permits political “associations” provided that they register with the government, accept the legality of the 1998 constitution, and do not practice violence or advocate the overthrow of the present regime. More than 30 parties are registered with the authorities. Among the most important parties and their leaders are: the National Congress Party (NCP) under President al Bashir and party secretary general Ibrahim Ahmed Umar, successor to the former National Islamic Front (NIF); Popular National Congress (PNC) under Hassan al Turabi; Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) under Osman al Mirghani; and Umma Party (UP) under Sadiq al Mahdi. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), a grouping of several opposition parties under the chairmanship of Osman al Mirghani, is based in Asmara, Eritrea. Among its members are the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), under Colonel John Garang, and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), under Mansour Khalid (the SPLM is the political wing of the SPLA).
Mass Media: Sudan has a large number of local and national newspapers. The major national dailies are published in Arabic or English. Sudan Television broadcasts 60 hours of programming a week. The Sudan National Broadcasting Corporation airs radio programming in Arabic, English, French, and Swahili. Radio and televisionstations are state-controlled entities and serve as outlets for the government viewpoint. Journalistsand the papers they serve, although subject to government censorship, operate with more freedom and independence than in most neighboring countries or Arab states. The Voice of Sudan, sponsored by the National Democratic Alliance, broadcasts in Arabic and English. The Sudan People’s Liberation Army issues its own newspapers and journals.
Foreign Relations: Throughout the 1990s, Sudan’s foreign relations have been governed by the desire to spread Islamism throughout eastern Africa and the Middle East, in keeping with the program of the National Islamic Front, and by the course of the civil war between Northerners and Southerners. Relations with Arab countries as well as its neighbors have varied from cordial and supportive to antagonistic and quarrelsome according to the degree that the regime pursued or relaxed its Islamist agenda or pressed or accommodated its Southern opponents. At times, Sudan has supported regional insurgencies against several of its fellow Arab states. In 1995 the government was accused of complicity in the attempted assassination of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. Although this action brought down international sanctions upon the country, Egypt eventually withdrew its charges and the matter passed. Relations with Libya, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Uganda have experienced wide swings; in the case of the latter three, the degree of their support or opposition to the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and other opposition groups has been the overriding consideration. By the late 1990s, Sudan’s relations with its neighbors were either strained or broken. Since 2000, the al Bashir regime has sought to improve its standing through rapprochement and accommodation. Relations with several European nations have been relatively good, especially those with France. Relations with the United States have been far less so, although there has been some improvement since 2000.
Membership in International Organizations: Sudan holds membership in a number of international organizations. Among them are: the League of Arab States, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, and the Nonaligned Movement as well as the United Nations and its subsidiary organizations, including United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the World Health Organization, and the World Trade Organization (observer status). Within Africa, Sudan belongs to the African Union and the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development. It is a member of such international financial institutions as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (membership temporarily in abeyance), the African Development Bank, and the Islamic Development Bank, and is one of the Africa-Caribbean-Pacific group of states that receive economic aid from the European Union.
Major International Treaties: Sudan is a signatory of the Convention on Biological Diversity; Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna; Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling, and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction; Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer; Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons; United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea; United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa; and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Sudan is also a party to all twelve international conventions and protocols relating to terrorism, including the African Union’s Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Terrorism; Convention of the Organization of the Islamic Conference on Combating Terrorism; and International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism.