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.



Italy Says Suspending EU Sanctions on Syria Could Help Encourage Transition

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syria's de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (SANA via AP)
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syria's de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (SANA via AP)
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Italy Says Suspending EU Sanctions on Syria Could Help Encourage Transition

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syria's de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (SANA via AP)
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syria's de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (SANA via AP)

Italy's foreign minister says a moratorium on European Union sanctions on Syria could help encourage the country's transition after the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad by opposition groups.

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani visited Syria on Friday and expressed Italy’s keen interest in helping Syria recover from civil war, rebuild its broken economy and help stabilize the region.

Tajani, who met with Syria’s new de facto leaders, including Ahmed al-Sharaa, said a stable Syria and Lebanon was of strategic and commercial importance to Europe.

He said the fall of Assad's government, as well as the Lebanon parliament's vote on Thursday to elect army commander Joseph Aoun as president, were signs of optimism for Middle East stability.

He said Italy wanted to play a leading role in Syria’s recovery and serve as a bridge between Damascus and the EU, particularly given Italy’s commercial and strategic interests in the Mediterranean.

“The Mediterranean can no longer just be a sea of death, a cemetery of migrants but a sea of commerce a sea of development,” he said.

Tajani later traveled to Lebanon and met with Aoun. Italy has long played a sizeable role in the UN peacekeeping force for Lebanon, UNIFIL.

On the eve of his visit, Tajani presided over a meeting in Rome with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and officials from Britain, France and Germany as well as the EU foreign policy chief. He said that meeting of the so-called Quintet on Syria was key to begin the discussion about a change to the EU sanctions.

“The sanctions were against the Assad regime. If the situation has changed, we have to change our choices,” Tajani said.