Sudan Prepares to Hold Elections in 2024

Sudanese protesters rally outside the army complex in Sudan’s capital Khartoum on April 18, 2019. (AFP)
Sudanese protesters rally outside the army complex in Sudan’s capital Khartoum on April 18, 2019. (AFP)
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Sudan Prepares to Hold Elections in 2024

Sudanese protesters rally outside the army complex in Sudan’s capital Khartoum on April 18, 2019. (AFP)
Sudanese protesters rally outside the army complex in Sudan’s capital Khartoum on April 18, 2019. (AFP)

The Sudanese government announced on Friday that it has kicked off preparations to hold elections in 2024.

The elections are expected to be held at the end of the country’s transitional period.

The sovereignty council has tasked some of its members to launch discussions over the formation of a committee that would tackle the formation of the electoral and constitutional commissions.

The constitutional document for the transitional period stipulates that the period would last 39 months since its signing in August 2019.

It was extended after the signing of the Juba agreement, so that it now began on October 2020. The transition effectively ends after the elections are successfully held.

The constitutional document gave the transitional council the authority to appoint the chair and members of several independent commissions, including the electoral and constitutional commissions.

Officials will now have to engage in serious discussions over the distribution of electoral districts, a popular census and civil registry.

The international community has been exerting great efforts to encourage Sudan to hold elections.



Lebanon's New President Says to Ensure State Has Exclusive Right to Carry Arms

This handout photo released by the Lebanese parliament shows Newly elected Lebanese president Joseph Aoun delivering a speech after his election in Beirut, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by LEBANESE PARLIAMENT / AFP)
This handout photo released by the Lebanese parliament shows Newly elected Lebanese president Joseph Aoun delivering a speech after his election in Beirut, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by LEBANESE PARLIAMENT / AFP)
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Lebanon's New President Says to Ensure State Has Exclusive Right to Carry Arms

This handout photo released by the Lebanese parliament shows Newly elected Lebanese president Joseph Aoun delivering a speech after his election in Beirut, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by LEBANESE PARLIAMENT / AFP)
This handout photo released by the Lebanese parliament shows Newly elected Lebanese president Joseph Aoun delivering a speech after his election in Beirut, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by LEBANESE PARLIAMENT / AFP)

Lebanon's newly elected President Joseph Aoun told lawmakers on Thursday that he will work to ensure the state has the exclusive right to carry arms, in his first speech at parliament after he was elected.

His comments were seen partly as a reference to Hezbollah's arsenal, which he had not commented on publicly as the former army commander.

In a first round of voting Thursday, Aoun received 71 out of 128 votes but fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to win outright. Of the rest, 37 lawmakers cast blank ballots and 14 voted for “sovereignty and the constitution.”
In the second round, he received 99 votes.

In his speech in parliament, Aoun also pledged to carry out reforms to the judicial system and fight corruption.

He promised to control the country’s borders and “ensure the activation of the security services and to discuss a strategic defense policy that will enable the Lebanese state to remove the Israeli occupation from all Lebanese territories” in southern Lebanon, where the Israeli military has not yet withdrawn from dozens of villages.

He also vowed to reconstruct “what the Israeli army destroyed in the south, east and (Beirut’s southern) suburbs.”

Thursday’s vote came weeks after a tenuous ceasefire agreement halted a 14-month conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and at a time when Lebanon’s leaders are seeking international assistance for reconstruction.

Aoun said he would call for parliamentary consultations as soon as possible on naming a new prime minister.