The Executive Director of the INTREPID South Sudan (ISS), Bol Deng Bol, has decried the failure to implement the security reforms for the conduct of credible, free, and fair elections in 2026.
Speaking on Radio Tamazuj’s Road to Election program Sunday, Bol warned that the credibility of the much-anticipated poll would be at stake if key security reforms fail.
According to the current peace deal, South Sudan is supposed to train, graduate, and deploy a unified force of 83, 000 to take charge of security during the transitional period until elections in 2026.
Only 53,000 personnel had been graduated as of 2023, with just 7 percent said to have been deployed.
“So far, only 7 percent of the unified forces were deployed. The rest of the forces allied to SSPDF, SPLA-IO, and SSOA, are still at cantonment sites,” he stated.
“With elections ahead of us, credibility of the poll will be at risk.”
“The movements of certain political parties are restricted by their counterparts, civilians are holding guns that they may use to wreak havoc during elections as a means of showing loyalty to certain politicians, and some may not be able to go to the polling points. The credibility of an election conducted in such an environment will be at stake,” he added.
Bol, a civil society activist, urged for political will to push for the key security reforms.
“What is needed is political will for the implementation of security arrangements outlined in the 2018 peace deal,” he said.