The Sahrawi National Council (SNC) or Sahrawi Parliament is the

legislature A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its p ...

of the

Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (; SADR; also romanized with Saharawi; ar, الجمهورية العربية الصحراوية الديمقراطية ' es, República Árabe Saharaui Democrática), also known as Western Sahara, is a p ...

. Its structure and competences are guided by the

Constitution of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic A constitution of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) was first promulgated in 1976, but it has been revised several times since then. The last major redrafting came in 1991, but this version was further changed by the Sahrawi National Cou ...

(SADR). The present speaker since 2020 is

Hamma Salama Hamma is a village and a former municipality in the Nordhausen district, in Thuringia, Germany. Since 1 December 2010, it has been part of the town Heringen Heringen (Werra) is a small town in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in eastern Hesse, Germ ...

. It was first created by

Polisario Front The Polisario Front, Frente Polisario, Frelisario or simply Polisario, from the Spanish abbreviation of (Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro), (in ar, rtl=yes, الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير الس� ...

members and Sahrawi

tribal The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to conflic ...

notables as the Provisionary National Council in April or November 1975, after the proclamation of

Guelta Zemmur Guelta Zemmur (or Guelta Zemour, Tamazight for "olive tree pool") is a small town or village in the Moroccan-administered part of the territory of Western Sahara. The town is based around a guelta or oasis, retaining rain water for long periods. ...

. On February 27, 1976, POLISARIO leader

El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed ; 1948 – 9 June 1976) was a Sahrawi nationalist leader, co-founder and second Secretary-General of the Polisario Front. Youth and background El-Ouali was born in 1948 in a Sahrawi nomad encampment somewhere on the ''hammada'' desert plains ...

announced that the Council had declared the creation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, of which it became the first parliament. On the POLISARIO's III General Popular Congress (August 26–30, 1976), a newly elected membership was formally installed as the Sahrawi National Council. The SNC is a

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multic ...

body, with 53 seats, elected every two years (since the XIII POLISARIO Congress) at the General Popular Congresses by delegates from the

Sahrawi refugee camps The Sahrawi refugee camps (also romanized with Saharawi) in Tindouf, Algeria, are a collection of refugee camps set up in the Tindouf Province, Algeria in 1975–76 for Sahrawi refugees fleeing from Moroccan forces, who advanced through Wester ...

at Tindouf province,

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

, supplemented by representatives of the

Sahrawi People's Liberation Army , image = , caption = Flag of Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic , image2 = , caption2 = , founded = ( ago) , current_form = , disbanded = , branches = , ...

and the civil society organizations ( UJSARIO,

UNMS The National Union of Sahrawi Women (Spanish: ''Unión Nacional de Mujeres Saharauis'', UNMS) 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 '' ...

, UGTSARIO). In the last election (2012), 35% of the parliamentarians were women. It usually convenes in

Tifariti Tifariti (Berber: Tifariti, ar, تيفاريتي) is an oasis town located in north-eastern Western Sahara, east of the Moroccan Berm, from Smara and north of the border with Mauritania. It is part of what Polisario Front calls the '' Liberated ...

, at the

Liberated Territories Liberation or liberate may refer to: Film and television * ''Liberation'' (film series), a 1970–1971 series about the Great Patriotic War * "Liberation" (''The Flash''), a TV episode * "Liberation" (''K-9''), an episode Gaming * '' Liberati ...

of Western Sahara, but on occasion also in the

refugee camp A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displaced peo ...

s. Among the reforms enacted by the SNC is the abolishment of

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

. In 1999, the SNC caused the fall of then

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Mahfoud Ali Beiba Mahfoud Ali Beiba Hammad Dueihi ( ar, محفوظ علي بيبا حماد; born 1953 – died July 2, 2010) was a Sahrawi politician and co-founder of the Polisario Front, a national liberation movement that seeks self-determination for Wes ...

government through a

motion of no-confidence A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or mana ...

. The powers of the SNC were substantially expanded in the 1991 constitutional reforms of the SADR, and has since been further enhanced (last in 1999). In its last election (2012), 158 candidates competed for 52 seats in 11 constituencies.

List of presidents of the Sahrawi National Council

Below is a list of presidents of the Sahrawi Provisional National Council: Khatri adduh parlamento extremadura

Below is a list of presidents of the Sahrawi National Council: Parlament SARD 2005

, - ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;vertical-align:top;" , Party ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" , Seats , - , Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro , style="vertical-align:top;" , 53 , - , style="background-color:#E9E9E9", Total , width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 53

International membership

The Sahrawi National Council is a member of the

Pan-African Parliament The Pan-African Parliament (PAP), also known as the African Parliament, is the legislative body of the African Union. It held its inaugural session in March 2004. The Parliament exercises oversight, and has advisory and consultative powers, ha ...

. Since October 14, 2011, the SNC is a permanent observer member of the

Andean Parliament The Andean Parliament is the governing and deliberative body of the Andean Community. It was created on October 25, 1979, in La Paz (Bolivia), through the Constitutive Treaty signed by the chancellors of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venez ...

List of presidents of the Sahrawi National Council

International membership

References

See also