South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit on Friday night reconstituted the National Constitutional Review Commission (NCRC), National Elections Commission (NEC), and the Political Parties Council (PPC) and appointed officials to lead the three institutions.
In a decree read on the state-owned television South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation, Kiir reconstituted the National Constitution Review Commission and appointed members from different political parties, civil society, eminent personalities, academia, business unions, refugee and internally displaced persons, persons living with disabilities and the media among others to the body.
He appointed SPLM-IO’s Riang Yier Zuor as the NCRC chairperson, SPLM Party’s Awak Bior Ajang as deputy chairperson, and a civil servant, Abraham John Nathana, as secretary among other officials.
The president, in another decree, reconstituted the National Elections Commission and appointed officials to lead the entity.
Incumbent NEC chairperson, SPLM’s Prof. Abednego Akok Kacuol, retained his position while Michael Yabagayo of South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA) was appointed NEC deputy chairperson. Mac Maika Deng, a civil servant, was retained as the Chief Electoral Officer.
Kiir also appointed members of the Political Parties Council including James Akol Zakayo as chairperson, Lona Loduro as deputy chairperson, and Peter James Lemi, as executive secretary.
South Sudan is scheduled to conduct the first-ever general elections at the end of the transitional period in December 2024 as per the 2018 peace agreement which ended a bloody conflict that killed an estimated 400,000 people according to the UN.