SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Atlantic Council - How the international community can help restore Sudan’s democracy

30/1/2023: Atlantic Council - How the international community can help restore Sudan’s democracy, by Sami Abdelhalim Saeed

Sami Abdelhalim Saeed of International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance calls for the international community to provide substantial support for elections in Sudan planned for the end of the transitional period.

Saeed argues that the lack of scope of elected institutions under Sudan’s 2019 Constitutional Charter is “an invitation to instability”, given that credible elections require broadly accepted parameters that ensure that losers respect the legitimacy of elected institutions and winners do not “push victory to extremes [and act with] no limits in power”.

Saeed adds that the requirement that elections happen at the end of a transition “places a huge burden” on Sudan’s unelected transitional institutions to develop a permanent constitution, to which the three “non-attractive” solutions are: amending the constitutional documents in contradiction of the Juba peace agreement, rush constitution-building and compromise on quality and inclusivity or delay elections and increase the risk of extra-constitutional military intervention.