South Sudan’s Parliament approved on Friday a two-year extension of the transitional period agreed upon by parties to the 2018 peace agreement, as well as the general elections for the same period.
Last week, the South Sudan Presidency agreed to extend the transitional period by two years and postpone elections, which were originally scheduled for December this year, to 2026.
The peace monitoring body, the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC), endorsed the same period on Thursday.
In an extraordinary sitting chaired by Jemma Nunu Kumba, the Speaker of the Transitional Legislative Assembly amended the transitional constitution amendment Bill number 12, 2024, to incorporate the recent extension of the transitional period.
Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Ruben Madol Arol tabled amendment number 12 Bill 2024 in its first reading.
The Bill was passed by MPs in a number of hours without deliberations.
Speaking to reporters after the sitting, Oliver Mori Benjamin, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Information, said MPs adopted the resolution of the presidency, cabinet, political parties, and RJMEC, extending their tenure by 24 months from 22 February 2025 to 22 February 2027.
“Based on a full understanding of what has come out from the stakeholders who consulted among themselves widely, the transitional national legislature unanimously endorsed the aforementioned extension,” Mori said.
He further said the extension includes the term of the national legislature, the state legislative assemblies and the three administrative areas.
Reacting to the parliament’s decision, Edmund Yakani, the Executive Director of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), welcomed the endorsement while urging the parties to use the same energy used to endorse the extension to allocate resources for the implementation of the remaining tasks of the peace agreement.
“It is the first time in the history of South Sudan that we have amended a constitutional amendment bill in one day in a matter of hours without deliberations or debates,” Yakani said.
“We hope the same spirit used to amend the constitution will also be used for allocating money and unifying the forces and formulating the constitution,” he added.
The lawmakers’ move to extend the transitional government’s tenure comes a week after the parties agreed to postpone South Sudan’s long-awaited first general election since independence in 2011.
In 2018, President Salva Kiir reached a peace deal with opposition figures, including his rival Riek Machar. The parties formed a transitional unity government on 22 February 2020.