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Elections in the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic are regularly held by the government-in-exile at a national, regional and local level. Elections are considered to be held under a non-partisan participatory democratic regime, as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) and the Polisario Front (the sole legally recognised political movement in the SADR, which leads to a de-facto one-party state) structures are parallel.
The SADR claims the Western Sahara, a territory largely administered by Morocco since Spain abandoned it in 1975. The sovereignty over Western Sahara is unresolved: the territory is contested by Morocco and the Polisario Front (Popular Front for the Liberation of the Saguia el Hamra and Río de Oro), a national liberation movement which formally proclaimed a government-in-exile in 27 February 1976. The United Nations, which considers Western Sahara to be a non-self-governing territory, has attempted to hold a referendum on the issue through the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), which administered a ceasefire in place between September 1991 and November 2020.
The Constitution of the SADR, proclaimed in 1976 and amemded several times, stipulates that the current political system is an emergency mechanism, with the intention to establish a multi-party system as soon as the SADR manages to establish its authority in all of Western Sahara. The Polisario would then either be dissolved or transformed into an ordinary political party based on an extraordinary Congress.
The Polisario Front organised several refugee camps (located in Tindouf, Algeria, the only neighbouring country friendly with Polisario) to accommodate the Sahrawi refugees fleeing the Western Sahara War. After the proclamation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic on 27 February 1976, the camps were administered as part of the newly created Sahrawi nation-state, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
The political system established has been described as a participatory democracy, [1] where the main space of political participation was open discussion meetings organised for all citizens to attend voluntarily, and in which they are free to express their opinions and put questions to the government representatives running the meeting, who are responsible to pass on the views and suggestions of the local poppulation. The open discussion meetings, known as political meetings, [lower-alpha 1] are held before elections and congresses of organisations (women, trade union, youth...).
Direct elections were held to the newly formed Sahrawi National Council and to the heads of the districts [lower-alpha 2] and municipalities [lower-alpha 3] of the Sahrawi refugee camps, with the heads of regions [lower-alpha 4] being appointed by the President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Municipalities have been established in the Liberated Territories, but elections haven't been held there.
The President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is elected by the Congress of the Polisario Front, together with the National Secretariat, which is the most important decision-making organism inside the Polisario Front when Congresses are not held. The President of the SADR is also the General Secretary of the Polisario Front.
To be elected General-Secretary of the Polisario Front and thus President of the SADR the following requirements have to be met: [2]
The candidates are proposed by the Election Commission, and voted on by the Congress. The vote is done by ballot directly and secretly, with a supermajority of at least two-thirds of the vote required to win the first round and an absolute majority for the second round. [2]
Legislative elections are held for the Sahrawi National Council, legally considered the successor of the colonial Yema'a. The election system has varied several times.
To be elected to the Sahrawi National Council the following requirements (as set in Article 82 of the 2023 Constitution [3] ) have to be met:
Elections are held on the basis of direct and universal suffrage using the single non-transferable vote election system with a gender quota reserving seats to women. Members can be re-elected but cannot assume any other public office while serving as Members of the National Council. Members come from constituencies based either on the districts of the refugee camps or the military regions of the SADR; while mass organisations and the Consultative Council get seats reserved. The President of the National Council is elected from outside of the members from candidates proposed by the National Secretariat of the Polisario Front.
The Polisario Front, Frente Polisario, Frelisario or simply Polisario, is a rebel Sahrawi nationalist liberation movement claiming Western Sahara.
Abdelkader Taleb Omar is a Sahrawi politician who serves as the ambassador of Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic to Algeria since 17 March 2018. He is a former prime minister.
Scouting exists in Western Sahara both as part of the Fédération Nationale du Scoutisme Marocain as well as independent groups.
The National Union of Sahrawi Women is the women's wing of the Polisario Front. It was created in 1974, and claims to have 10,000 members, divided between the Sahrawi refugee camps, the Liberated territories, the Moroccan-occupied part of Western Sahara and the Sahrawi diaspora.
Tifariti is an oasis town and the temporary capital of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, located in north-eastern Western Sahara, east of the Moroccan Berm, 138 km (86 mi) from Smara and 15 km (9 mi) north of the border with Mauritania. It is part of what Polisario Front calls the Liberated Territories and Morocco call the Buffer Zone. It has been the de facto temporary capital of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic since the government moved there in 2008 from Bir Lehlou. It is the headquarters of the 2nd military region of the SADR.
Mahfoud Ali Beiba Hammad Dueihi was a Sahrawi politician and co-founder of the Polisario Front, a national liberation movement that seeks self-determination for Western Sahara. From 1975 until his death, he lived in an exile in the refugee camps of Tindouf, Algeria.
The Sahrawi National Council or Sahrawi Parliament is the legislature of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Its structure and competences are guided by the Constitution of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). The present speaker since 2020 is Hamma Salama.
The foreign relations of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) are conducted by the Polisario Front, which maintains a network of representation offices and embassies in foreign countries.
The politics of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic refers to politics of the Polisario Front's proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, a country in North Africa with limited recognition by other states, controlling parts of the Western Sahara region.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic:
Sahrawi Republic–South Africa relations are the current and historical relations between the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) in Western Sahara and the Republic of South Africa. Formal diplomatic relations were established at ambassador level in 2004, during the Thabo Mbeki government. A Sahrawi embassy was opened in Pretoria, and the South-African embassy in Algiers was accredited to the SADR.
Mexico–Sahrawi Republic relations are the current and historical relations between Mexico and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). Mexico recognized the SADR on 8 September 1979.
The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, also known as the Sahrawi Republic and Western Sahara, is a partially recognized state, located in the western Maghreb, which claims the non-self-governing territory of Western Sahara, but controls only the easternmost one-fifth of that territory. It is recognized by 46 UN member states and South Ossetia. Between 1884 and 1975, Western Sahara was known as Spanish Sahara, a Spanish colony. The SADR is one of the two African states in which Spanish is a significant language, the other being Equatorial Guinea.
Women in the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic are women who were born in, who live in, or are from the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in the region of the Western Sahara or the Sahrawi refugee camps. In Sahrawi society, the women share responsibilities at every level of its community and social organization. Article 41 of the Constitution of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic ensures that the state will pursue "the promotion of women and [their] political, social and cultural participation, in the construction of society and the country's development".
Elections to the Sahrawi National Council were held between 19 and 21 February 2012. The elections were only held in the Free Zone of Western Sahara and in Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria, the rest of Western Sahara being under the de facto administration of Morocco. The elections were held after the 13th Congress of the Polisario Front, which took place two months earlier between 15 and 22 December 2011. The percentage of young people in the new Council stood at 42%, while women gained 25% of seats. Khatri Addouh was reelected Speaker of the Council on 28 February 2012.
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic–Spain relations are the current and historical relations between the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and Spain.
Legislative elections were held in the Sahrawi Republic on 8–9 March 2020 to elect 52 of the 53 members of the Sahrawi National Council, the unicameral parliament of the SADR. More than 100,000 Sahrawis were registered to vote, with 145 candidates contesting the elections.
The 16th Congress of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia El Hamra and Río de Oro was held in the Dajla refugee camp in Tindouf, Algeria between 13 and 22 January 2023 to renovate the governing bodies of the Polisario Front and establish the movement's main lines of action and strategy for the next leadership term.
The 13th Congress of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia El Hamra and Río de Oro was held in Tifariti between 15 and 22 December 2011 to renovate the governing bodies of the Polisario Front and establish the movement's main lines of action and strategy for the next leadership term.
Legislative elections were held in the Sahrawi Republic on 8–9 April 2023 to elect 50 of the 51 members of the Sahrawi National Council, the unicameral parliament of the SADR.