South Sudan is at a crossroads following a lack of consensus on the conduct of elections in December, an official said.
Speaking during the release of the human rights report in Juba on Thursday, Prof. Abednego Akok, the Chairperson of the National Elections Commission (NEC) said the Elections Act, which governs the conduct of elections, has not been amended.
“My dear youth, we are today at a crossroads, the number one role is that of the election commission which I have just told you (the government is going to dissolve) and we are now approaching September 22 and the decision must be taken,” said Akok.
He said the country does not have a permanent constitution to guide the conduct of elections.
“The other is the role of the revitalized peace agreement which says elections must be conducted 60 days before the end of transitional period,” he said.
Kacuol said the elections could only be compromised by the parties to the 2018 peace deal.
A civil society activist, Merekaje Lorna, said the people of South Sudan need to exercise their democratic right of electing their leaders.
We can only claim to be a democratic country by having elections, she said.
“We started postponing the elections in 2015. The question is; when is South Sudan going to have elections.”
South Sudan has been formally at peace since a 2018 agreement that ended a five-year conflict responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths.
Elections scheduled for last year were postponed to this December, but few preparations are in place.
The feasibility of December 2024 elections — the first since the country gained independence in July 2011 — is increasingly in doubt.
According to the National Election Act 2023, the Transitional Government must dissolve its executive and legislative bodies by September 22, three months before elections.