A member of the Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA) has raised concerns about the feasibility of conducting elections in 2026 as the country struggles with severe economic challenges.
This follows civil servants and the various armed forces having not been paid salaries for a year, and legislators breaking off for a four-month recess without receiving allowances, disrupting the latter’s plans to travel to their constituencies.
Juol Nhomngek, an SPLM-IO lawmaker representing Lakes State’s Cueibet County in the National Legislature, expressed doubts about the ability of parliamentarians to undertake their responsibilities without money. He said that without pay and recess allowances, they cannot travel to their constituencies or engage in voter education ahead of the elections scheduled for 2026.
“This is a normal legal requirement that after a session, members of parliament go for recess. This particular recess is different from the others because members will not be able to go to their areas because they have gone for one year without receiving salaries. They have not received their privileges which include the recess allowance,” he said. “I do not know whether there will be recess. They (MPs) will still be going back to parliament to sit under trees because their cars are packed now. There is no fuel. People cannot even afford tickets to go to their areas.”
When asked how the economic meltdown is going to impact preparations for the 2026 General Elections, Nhomngek said he doubts the polls will happen as scheduled because most government institutions, including the National Legislature, have been crippled lack of funds for operations.
“Everybody is hoping that change will only come when there are elections, but looking at things now, the parliament where I am a member is not operating and for the last two months, the offices have not been functioning due to electricity issues,” he revealed. “So, in this case, when you talk of preparing for elections, we are not even implementing the laws that are leading to elections, we are not even preparing, preaching the peace agreement to the public. We are not even preparing the public or our grassroots. Now, what are we doing?”
The legislator suggested that the country plan to hold phased elections and advised the public to demand elections.
“We can hold local government and state elections and then we go for parliamentary elections so every MP should go to their areas. We cannot go for the presidential elections or hold general elections in my opinion due to lack of finances,” Nhomngek said. “As we heard last time from SPLM Party Secretary General [Peter Lam Both], elections could not be held in December 2026 because of lack of finances. It will still go on like that.”