The Congress elects the National Secretariat, which is the most important decision-making organism inside the Polisario Front when Congresses are not held, and the General-Secretary of the Front, which automatically becomes
President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. To be elected Secretary-General of the Polisario Front the following requirements have to be met: • Being a
Sahrawi national. • Having a militant experience of at least twenty years and have held positions in the national leadership for at least ten years. • Having military experience during the war. • Being at least 40 years old. • Having a clean criminal record. 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. After the reforms passed by the 16th Congress to the Fundamental Law of the Polisario Front, the National Secretariat will only have 44 members, of which 27 are directly chosen by the Congress, 16 are anonymously elected by the
Occupied Territories to become anonymous members, and the General-Secretary serving as an
ex officio member. To become a member of the National Secretariat the following requirements have to be met: • Being a
Sahrawi national. • Having a clean criminal record. • Being at least 30 years old. • Having a university or academic graduation certificate with five years of continuous service or field experience of not less than ten years in one or more of the following positions: • Regional personnel in the military or higher. • Member of a regional branch or higher. Central Director at Ministry level or higher. • Ambassador or representative at the state level. • Member of the National Constitutional Council, the Superior Council of the Magistracy and the Consultative Council. • Member of the executive office of a mass organization. The vote is direct and secret, with
multiple non-transferable vote being used in the first round and
ranked voting in the second one. The winning candidates are those who have obtained the absolute majority of the votes in the first round. In case of impossibility of obtaining the required number of candidates, the electoral commission continues to seek the vote of the congressmen on the basis of a list three times greater than the number of remaining candidates until obtaining the number of required candidates, elected by simple majority. There's a
gender quota requiring at least six of the Congress-elected members to be women, while a new quota of six new members was introduced in this Congress before the election of the National Secretariat. ==Candidates==