JUBA, South Sudan — South Sudan has pushed back its first-ever presidential and parliamentary elections to Feb. 11, 2027, from Dec. 22, the national election commission said Saturday, Nov. 14. It gave no reason.[1]
Related: Sudan Detains ICC Fugitive Ahmed Haroun in Omdurman.
The new timetable
Voter registration runs from Nov. 14 to Nov. 28. A 45-day campaign is set for Dec. 27 to Feb. 9, followed by a one-day silence before the vote.[1]
Election commission chairman Gabriel Bol Deng said 3,161 registration centers have been set up and more than 22,000 staff recruited. About 90 percent of the country’s 15 million people have no state-recognized ID, according to the World Bank. Deng said community leaders will identify those people, particularly in rural areas, and give them a form that lets them vote.[1]
A vote years in the making
The world’s youngest country first set 2022 as its election year and has delayed the vote at least three times. South Sudan won independence from Sudan in 2011. Forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and to former Vice President Riek Machar fought a civil war from 2013 to 2018 that killed at least 400,000 people.[1]
Machar has been under house arrest since last March, accused of crimes against humanity. He has not been convicted, and fighting between government forces and his followers has escalated in recent months.[1]
Concerns about the process
In September, Kiir dissolved the transitional unity government and named a caretaker administration, letting the country head to elections without first finishing a permanent constitution or a census. Yasmin Sooka, who chairs the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, called that move “a constitutional coup through legislative reforms” in October.[1]
More from the region: the African Union on the Sudan and Horn crises. See all Africa news.
Sources
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