Impossible to hold elections in Feb 2023, Elections commission

The head of South Sudan’s Elections Commission says the sixty days after the transitional period, which expires in December, is not enough to organize free and fair elections.

“Elections should be held six months after the transitional period to allow enough time for the electoral body to register voters and carry out civic education,” says Prof. Abednego Akok, a professor of Management Sciences at the University of Juba and Chairperson of the National Elections Commission.

The 2018 peace agreement stipulates general elections be held in February 2023, two months after the end of the transitional period.  But The implementation of key parts of the peace agreement has been delayed, including reconstituting the transitional national legislative assembly, unifying the various forces into one national army, and carrying out financial management reforms. 

Prof. Akok says elections should be run six months ahead to allow room for civic education, registration of voters, holding political rallies and campaigns, and the nomination of candidates.

“All those processes will go like that until you reach the end, the last day for polls, and so on. This is one of the challenges now facing the nation and it needs all the political thinkers of the nation to sit down and strategize and think further, how do we resolve this with the time factor and resources being very limited.” Akok notes.

The National Elections Act has yet to be taken up in parliament. But the professor believes what matters most is the political will of party leaders and politicians to act responsibly in conducting elections next year. 

 “Right now is about the appropriate time we can conduct elections, either we can come back to September this year or we plan to run proper elections.”

“We need the political parties with the executive and parliament to sit down and try to cooperate and plan for a period to run elections peacefully and fairly. All these things need political will. If there’s a will, there’s a way.” Prof. Akok said.

South Sudanese are not certain whether elections should be held in Feb. 2023. Akok says the media can play a key role in alerting all stakeholders to prepare for elections in 2023. 

 “The media should play a role now to awaken people that the period for the peace agreement is running out, so people should be awake and try to design ways and means of planning for the elections. By doing so, you will make the public aware that the time has come for the nation to participate in developing democracy which is the peaceful means of getting power in the world nowadays.” Akok explains.

Akok says the government should ensure that resources are available to run the elections smoothly when the time comes, noting extra funding will be needed for transportation, the purchase of election materials, civil education, and capacity building of staff.  

Paulino Lukudu, a member of Other Political Parties (OPP) representing Central Equatoria state in the Council of States, said the chief signatories to the agreement took more than two years to fully form the unity government and pointed out that the armed forces have yet to be graduated and deployed.  

 “We cannot go for elections by having different, separate armies. The army has not been unified up to the moment. Armies are loyal to individuals and loyal to political parties rather than loyal to the nation and the constitution.” 

“Unless we want to have a sham election, elections that justify the presence of people in the office but not elections that follow the international standards of free and fair elections.” Lukudu reiterated.