JUBA, South Sudan — South Sudan’s first-ever election following its independence will not take place in December after all. A revised timetable published by the National Elections Commission on Saturday pushes back voting until Feb. 11, 2027 .
The election of the president and the parliament was to be held on Dec. 22. The reasons behind the postponement by 51 days were not specified by the commission, nor did its secretary general Ahon Malou Lueth explain why.
Commission spokesperson Josephine Achiro Fortelo defended the new calendar. “This is the timeline we have come up with after a thorough consultation with the stakeholders,” she told Reuters.
Registration opens under the new calendar
Voter registration was scheduled to start on Saturday, but now it will start for another election which will take place much later. More than 3,100 centers will register voters until Nov. 28, and the provisional register is due on Nov. 29.
In a statement published on its website, the National Elections Commission said registration will run from Nov. 14 to Nov. 28 across the country’s 10 states and three administrative areas, at 3,161 designated registration centres. Chairperson Gabriel Bol Deng announced the dates at a media briefing at the Pyramid Continental Hotel in Juba, saying the declaration was made under the commission’s constitutional mandate after months of consultation with electoral institutions.
Bol Deng urged eligible citizens to register at their nearest centre with identification or other accepted proof of identity and age, to give accurate information, verify their details before completing registration and not register more than once. He also called on state election committees, security agencies, political parties, civil society organizations, community leaders and the media to support awareness campaigns so the exercise is inclusive, transparent and accessible.
Candidate nomination will be done from Dec. 14 to 20. Final candidates will be listed from Jan. 18 to 21. The 45-day campaign will begin on Dec. 27 and end on Feb. 9, followed by a silence day on Feb. 10.
Counting at polling centers will commence immediately after the voting finishes on Feb. 11 and last until Feb. 12. Final results are expected on Feb. 16; however, disputes might go on for much longer, as the calendar sets aside Feb. 17 to July 15 to resolve them.
Funding gap and readiness warnings
The funds needed are not ready yet. Of the $276 million the commission requested to run the elections, it has received only $21 million.
Neither is the readiness. In September, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan stated that the country lacked the safeguards and conditions needed to hold peaceful and credible elections.
South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 and has never held elections since. Following a 2018 agreement which put an end to a civil conflict that lasted for five years and promised a vote, elections have been postponed repeatedly; Saturday’s timetable is just the latest one.