(KHARTOUM) — Democracy Reporting International (DRI), a group of mainly European experts, recommends that Sudan may simplify its electoral system ahead of the planned April 2010 voting. DRI made this conclusion in a just released report titled “Assessment of the Electoral Framework” of Sudan.

Under the current system for Sudan’s legislative races, three ballot types exist at each of the three levels of government — State Assemblies, South Sudan Legislative Assembly, and National Assembly. The three ballot types are: single member districts, party lists and women lists.

Thus in the upcoming elections, Northerners will mark 8 ballot papers: one for president, one for governor, three for the different selection categories of the national assembly, and three for their respective State Assembly. Southerners will have to mark ballots papers in those categories in addition to four more: one for for the South’s president and three for the selection categories to the South Sudan Legislative Assembly.

"There are serious questions whether the electoral systems used are too complex for a post-conflict election: The election administration must correctly print and distribute 1,268 different types of ballots. Voters, many of whom have never voted before, will have to mark up to 12 different ballots. A simplification of the electoral systems may be a solution," stated Michael Meyer, the co-coordinator of DRI.

DRI proposes that it is possible to simplify the district-by-district, first-past-the-post system of distributing parliamentary seats, also eliminating the ballots for party lists and women lists.

The DRI report states, "Given cumbersome electoral systems with voters receiving up to 12 ballots, there is a serious risk the elections may fail on logistical grounds. There is consideration of only holding elections to executive positions while postponing those to legislative bodies. However, that would do little to promote pluralism and would strengthen the already powerful executive branches of government further. A simplification of the electoral systems may be a more appropriate solution."

DRI says that Sudan can significantly simplify the ballot system "by dispensing with the majoritarian component and introducing a full PR [proportional representation] system. A voter in the north would then have to mark four ballots, a voter in the south six ballots. The number of ballot types would be reduced from more than 1,268 to 54. This solution could also solve the census dispute as far as it relates to elections and address some problems of IDP voting."

"To maintain the women quota there could be a requirement to place women candidates on fixed positions on party lists. The drawback of this option would be that if elections were not held in some regions, such as parts of Darfur, the overall results would be affected, and voters may be unfamiliar with list-based election systems."

The report was financed by the Kingdom of Belgium. It was researched by an assessment team sent to Juba from May 9 – 20 and Khartoum from August 31 - September 6. The Center for Peace and Development Studies at the University of Juba helped to author the report.

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