The last few months have seen a lack of progress in plans for upcoming elections and implementation of security arrangements in South Sudan. Radio Tamazuj answers your questions to help understand the situation.

1. Has the National Elections Commission (NEC) been reconstituted?

President Salva Kiir last Friday reconstituted the long-awaited National Elections Commission (NEC), which will be responsible for the preparations and conduct of the elections in December 2024. The SPLM faction led by President Kiir has been calling for the conduct of the elections as planned even though there are pending critical tasks of the 2018 peace agreement, which ended a bloody conflict that killed an estimated 400,000 people, according to the United Nations. President Kiir has appointed two officials with political affiliations and a civil servant to serve as the top leadership of the crucial body.

According to the 2018 peace agreement, elections must be conducted 60 days before the end of the transitional period. Only 15 months are remaining in the transitional period, which was extended last year. But critical work remains, including preparing constitutional frameworks for the polls.

The candid observation of most analysts, observers, and stakeholders is that as it stands today, South Sudan is not yet ready for elections. But elections could be held on schedule if there is adequate political will and a practical approach to the arrangements to achieve the benchmarks in the roadmap. Recent independent perception surveys conducted by civil society organizations and the UN Mission suggest that the majority of South Sudanese want elections to be held in December 2024 without further delays.

The National Elections Commission (NEC) is an electoral management body with the vision to strengthen democratic culture through free and credible elections and to ensure the rights of South Sudanese to vote.

When asked by Radio Tamazuj in a recent interview if he can ensure that there will be free and fair elections in South Sudan if reappointed as NEC chairperson, Prof. Abednego Akok Kacuol answered: "I say that the polls must be free and transparent because the reputation of South Sudan abroad is not good. I want to see that this is changed through having honest and transparent elections, and this is possible."

2. Who technically controls the reconstituted NEC? 

President Salva Kiir, who has openly expressed interest in running for the presidency in the 2024 elections, in his decree last week, reappointed Prof. Abednego Akok Kacuol as the NEC Chairperson. Prof. Akok, a renowned academic and member of the SPLM faction led by Kiir, will now be the one to manage the elections. At the same time, Michael Yabagayo of the South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA), a party to the 2018 peace agreement, was appointed NEC deputy chairperson. Mac Maika Deng, a civil servant, was retained as the Chief Electoral Officer. Based on the presidential decree, the reconstituted entity will be technically controlled by SPLM and SSOA.

The SPLM-IO, a principal party to the peace agreement, was not represented in the top leadership of the newly reconstituted electoral body. The opposition outfit has been reluctant to voice its full support for the upcoming general elections, saying the implementation of the peace agreement remains significantly behind schedule owing to delays in the completion of critical tasks, including a lack of civic space.

Also, there were concerns raised by civil society organizations over the lack of women’s representation in the reconstituted commissions, saying the presidential decree disregarded the 35% affirmative action stipulated in the peace agreement for women representation in leadership and governance. 

3. Are all the parties happy with the composition of NEC?

Most parties to the peace agreement have embraced the reconstituted National Elections Commission (NEC). But the leading opposition outfit, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-In Opposition (SPLM-IO), led by First Vice President Riek Machar, says it is unhappy about the officials appointed last week to lead the NEC.

Puok Both Baluang, the Acting Press Secretary in the Office of the First Vice President and SPLM-IO leader Dr. Riek Machar, on Monday told Radio Tamazuj that the SPLM-IO was supposed to nominate NEC’s Chief Electoral Officer.

“As far as the reconstituted NEC is concerned, we (SPLM-IO) had the position of Chief Electoral Officer. The position was supposed to belong to SPLM-IO but there was a change,” he said. “We were supposed to have three members on the NEC but only two were appointed. The president said that the position of Chief Electoral Officer is to be occupied by a civil servant but for us, and according to the allocation of positions, the position was given to SPLM-IO.”

Asked if the SPLM-IO will not forfeit the Chief Electoral Officer position like it did the defense ministry which was unilaterally swapped with the interior ministry by President Kiir, Pouk said they were waiting for the president to return from an official visit from Egypt.

4. What about the transitional security arrangements?

The transitional security arrangements are the cornerstone of the 2018 peace agreement. The deployment of the unified forces, consisting of 52,000 personnel who graduated last August, has repeatedly been delayed due to what the SPLM faction led by President Kiir terms as a lack of guns as a result of the UN arms embargo imposed on South Sudan in 2018 following the conflict and extended in May this year for another year. 

Under the 2018 revitalized peace agreement, the Transitional Government of National Unity is supposed to train and deploy 83,000 unified forces consisting of police, wildlife, prisons, intelligence, and military officers before the end of the transitional period.

"We have been trying to wait and see if there will be a possibility of lifting the arms embargo so that the unified forces are deployed," Information Minister Michael Makuei told reporters last month.

But the main factor for the delay in the deployment of the first batch of the unified forces is the disagreement between the SPLM led by President Kiir and SPLM-IO led by First Vice President Riek Machar over the ranking and titles of the second echelons of the unified forces. The Joint Defense Board (JDB) is the body in charge of the distribution of the units in the military as per the percentages allocated to each party to the peace agreement.

5. What about the permanent constitution-making process?

The permanent constitution-making process remains pending as the parties to the 2018 peace agreement have not yet started the process. While the process has not yet started, the reconstituted National Constitutional Review Commission will be the oversight body for the process. Some people argue that since there is limited time left before the end of the transitional period, the current transitional constitution can be amended to give the parties the authority to conduct elections then a permanent constitution will be adopted by an elected parliament.

In a recent interview with Radio Tamazuj, NEC Chairperson Prof. Abednego Akok said: "We already have a foundation, the old constituencies which were used to choose the current parliament. We have to conduct the elections so the people can elect their government and parliament, which will then pass the permanent constitution and conduct a national census."

When asked if there is enough budget for the upcoming elections, he said that free, fair, and transparent elections necessitate the availability of funds and timely preparations. The Ministry of Finance had allocated a dismal budget of SSP281,814,086 ($282,000) to the National Elections Commission in the financial year budget 2023/2024 to cover elections management, public outreach and voter education, finance and administration, support services and logistics. 

The Commission is required to conduct civic and voter registration, build the capacity of elections management personnel and pay for office rent in the states. A government plan to pass a supplementary budget for the upcoming elections has yet to be unveiled.