(a) Effective immediately upon passage and approval of this act, there is hereby created in the Second Judicial District an additional circuit-chancery judgeship, which shall have jurisdiction in law, equity, and probate.
(b) As soon as possible after March 10, 1997, the Governor shall appoint a qualified person to temporarily fill the Second Judicial District circuit-chancery judgeship created herein, and the appointed person shall serve until December 31, 1998, or until a successor has been elected and qualified, whichever occurs last.
(c) The qualified electors of the Second Judicial District shall elect the additional circuit-chancery judge created herein at the November 1998 general election to take office on January 1, 1999. The additional judge shall be elected at large and shall satisfy the same qualifications for holding office and shall receive the same salary, expenses, and other allowances as provided by law for judges of the circuit-chancery courts. The judge shall serve for elected terms of four (4) years.
(d) With the consideration of the creation of this judgeship, the General Assembly is aware of the requirements of the federal Voting Rights Act and the consent decree entered in Eugene Hunt, et al. vs. State of Arkansas, et al. After thorough review of the caseload statistics from the Second Judicial Circuit, the distribution of these cases between the various counties within the judicial circuit, the demographic makeup of the general voting age population and the licensed attorneys within the district, the recent decisions of the United States Supreme Court interpreting the requirements of the federal law, and based upon the recommendation of the Arkansas Judicial Council, the judgeship is to be elected in the manner and as specified in subsection (c) of this section.