Sudan did not ratify the Maputo Protocol, but signed on June, 2008.  According to Article 29 (2:b) of the 2008 National Election Act,‘twenty five per cent of the women members shall be elected on the basis of proportional representation at the state level from separate and closed partylists’. Voters vote for only one women’s list of their choice. Only parties whose women’s lists clear the 4% threshold qualify to access seats reserved for women. Seats are allocated according to proportional representation among these parties. Furthermore, ‘the seats designated to women’s lists shall be won by the candidates of those lists