Government & politics — Sudan

• history: previous 1973, 1998, 2005 (interim constitution, which was suspended in April 2019); latest initial draft completed by Transitional Military Council in May 2019; revised draft known as the "Draft Constitutional Charter for the 2019 Transitional Period," or “2019 Constitutional Declaration” was signed by the
• Council and opposition coalition on 4 August 2019 amendments: amended 2020 to incorporate the Juba Agreement for Peace in Sudan; the military suspended several provisions of the Constitutional Declaration in October 2021

• chief of state: Sovereign Council Chair and Commander-in-Chief of the Sudanese Armed Forces General Abd-al-Fatah al-BURHAN Abd-al-Rahman; note – the 2019 Constitutional Declaration established a collective chief of state of the "Sovereign Council," which was chaired by al-BURHAN; on 25 October 2021, al-BURHAN dissolved the Sovereign Council but reinstated it on 11 November 2021, replacing its civilian members (previously selected by the umbrella civilian coalition the Forces for Freedom and Change) with civilians of the military’s choosing but then relieved the newly appointed civilian members of their duties on 6 July 2022; note - Sovereign Council
• currently consists of only the 5 generals head of government: Sovereign Council Chair and Commander-in-Chief of the Sudanese Armed Forces General Abd-al-Fatah al-BURHAN Abd-al-Rahman; Acting Prime Minister Osman HUSSEIN (since 19 January 2022); note - former Prime Minister Abdallah HAMDOUK resigned on 2 January 2022; HAMDOUK served as prime minister from August 2019 to October 2019 before he was kidnapped; he was later freed
• and reinstated as prime minister on 21 November 2021 cabinet: most members of the Council of Ministers were forced from office in October 2021 by the military and subsequently resigned in November 2021; the military allowed a handful of ministers appointed by former armed opposition groups to retain their posts; at present, most of the members of the Council are senior civil servants serving in an acting minister capacity appointed either by Prime Minister HAMDOUK prior
• to his resignation or by the military elections/appointments: the 2019 Constitutional Declaration originally called for elections to be held in late 2022 at the end of the transitional period; that date was pushed back to late 2023 by the Juba Peace Agreement; the methodology for future elections has not yet been defined; according to the 2019 Constitutional Declaration, civilian members of the Sovereign Council and the prime minister were to have been nominated by an umbrella coalition of civilian actors known as the Forces for Freedom and Change; this methodology was followed in selecting HAMDOUK as prime minister in August 2019; the military purports to have suspended this provision of the 2019 Constitutional Declaration in October 2021; Prime Minister HAMDOUK’s restoration to office in November 2021 was the result of an agreement signed between him and Sovereign Council Chair BURHAN; military members of the Sovereign Council are selected by the leadership of the security forces; representatives of former armed groups to the Sovereign Council are selected by
• the signatories of the Juba Peace Agreement election results: NA

Description

according to the August 2019 Constitutional Declaration, which established Sudan's transitional government, the Transitional Legislative Council (TLC) was to have served as the national legislature during the transitional period until elections could be held; as of June 2023, the TLC had not been established

• elections: Council of State - last held 1 June 2015; dissolved in April 2019
• National Assembly - last held on 13-15 April 2015; dissolved in April 2019

Note

according to the 2019 Constitutional Declaration, elections for a new legislature are to be held in late 2023

Election Results

• Council of State - percent of vote by party - NA
• seats by party - NA;
• composition - men 35, women 19, percentage women 35.2%
• National Assembly - percent of vote by party - NA; former seats by party - NCP 323, DUP 25, Democratic Unionist Party 15, other 44, independent 19;

Composition

• men 296 women 130, percentage women 30.5%
• total National Legislature percentage women 31%

• highest court(s): National Supreme Court (consists of 70 judges organized into panels of 3 judges and includes 4 circuits that operate outside the capital); Constitutional Court (consists of 9 justices including the court president); note - the Constitutional Court resides outside the national judiciary and has not been appointed since the signature of the 2019
• Constitutional Declaration judge selection and term of office: National Supreme Court and Constitutional Court judges selected by the Supreme Judicial Council, which replaced the National Judicial Service Commission upon enactm
• ent of the 2019 Constitutional Declaration subordinate courts: Court of Appeal; other national courts; public courts; district, town, and rural courts

18 states (wilayat, singular - wilayah); Blue Nile, Central Darfur, East Darfur, Gedaref, Gezira, Kassala, Khartoum, North Darfur, North Kordofan, Northern, Red Sea, River Nile, Sennar, South Darfur, South Kordofan, West Darfur, West Kordofan, White Nile note: the peace Agreement signed in October 2020 included a provision to establish a system of governance to restructure the country's current 18 provinces/states into regions

• Major Parties as of April 2019: Democratic Unionist Party [Muhammad Uthman al-MIRGHANI]
• Democratic Unionist Party or DUP [Babika BABIKER]
• Federal Umma Party [Dr. Ahmed Babikir NAHAR]
• Muslim Brotherhood or MB [Sadig Abdalla ABDELMAJID and Dr. Yousif Al-Hibir Nor-ELDAYIM]
• National Congress Party or NCP [Umar Hassan Ahmad al-BASHIR]
• National Umma Party or NUP [Fadlallah Baramah NASSER]
• Popular Congress Party or PCP [Nawal Al-KHIDIR]
• Reform Movement Now [Dr. Ghazi Salahuddin al-ATABANI]
• Sudan National Front [Ali Mahmud HASANAYN]
• Sudanese Communist Party or SCP [Mohammed Moktar Al-KHATEEB]
• Sudanese Congress Party or SCoP [Omar El DIGAIR]
• Umma Party for Reform and Development [Mubarak Al-Fadul Al-MAHDI]
• Unionist Movement Party or UMP [led by DUP Chair Mohammed Osama Al-MERGHANI]
• Note: in November 2019, the transitional government banned the National Congress Party

• no citizenship by descent only: the
• no residency requirement for naturalization: 10 years

ABEDA, ACP, AfDB, AFESD, AMF, AU (suspended), CAEU, COMESA, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC (NGOs), ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IGAD, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, LAS, MIGA, NAM, OIC, OPCW, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNHRC, UNIDO, UNOOSA, UNWTO, UPU, WCO, WFTU (NGOs), WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO (observer)

chief of mission

Ambassador John T. GODFREY (since 1 September 2022) embassy: P.O. Box 699, Kilo 10, Soba, Khartoum mailing address: 2200 Khartoum Place, Washington DC 20521-2200

telephone

[249] 187-0-22000

Email address and website

• ACSKhartoum@state.gov
• https://sd.usembassy.gov/

note

the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum suspended operations on 22 April 2023, and the Department of State ordered the departure of U.S. employees due to the continued threat from armed conflict in Sudan

chief of mission

Ambassador Mohamed Abdalla Idris MOHAMED (since 16 September 2022)

chancery

2210 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008

telephone

[1] (202) 338-8565

FAX

[1] (202) 667-2406

Email address and website

• consular@sudanembassy.org
• https://www.sudanembassy.org/