By Philip Buda Ladu<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
National Elections Commission (NEC) Chairperson, Professor Abednego Akok Hacuol has directed the state high election committees’ members to immediately begin work in their areas after being sworn in yesterday.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n On Thursday, the commission held a swearing-in ceremony in Juba that saw members of the State High Elections Committees for the ten states and three administrative areas took their oath of office.<\/p>\n Chief Justice Chan Reec Madut administered the oath-taking in the presence of the NEC chairperson Prof. Abednego Akok, Political Parties Council Chairman, Eng. James Akol Jakayo and the Minister of Cabinet Affairs Dr. Martin Elia Lomuro.<\/p>\n Speaking at the event, Prof. Akok explained the appointment of the State Committees\u2019 members came in a resolution of the meeting of the commission, following consultations they did with stakeholders from the ten states who recommended the names.<\/p>\n \u201cThese people were not selected by us; they were nominated by the stakeholders in the commission. They are capable and competent to serve the interests of our people freely and transparently\u201d Akok stated.<\/p>\n According to him, these sworn-in officials will be given a brief induction to equip them with the skills and knowledge necessary for election management because they are the ones responsible for administering elections in their areas.<\/p>\n The NEC boss emphasized that after the brief training, the election officials will return to their respective states to implement the amended 2024 NEC Act.<\/p>\n This will begin with civic education followed by voter registration.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of your immediate tasks now is to identify from the counties to the Boma level all the voting centres, a very important duty that you will do. The civic education has started with you now that there are elections and high elections committees formed in the states,\u201d Akok emphasized.<\/p>\n He urged the state high election committee members to take on this national responsibility as specified by the law and the revitalized peace agreement.<\/p>\n NEC recently announced December 22, 2024, as the date for the anticipated looming elections meant to conclude the transitional period according to the roadmap.<\/p>\n For his part, James Akol Jakayo, the chairperson of the Political Parties Council (PPC) described the swearing-in of the state high election committees\u2019 members as historic, adding a big task awaits the officials.<\/p>\n \u201cThe task that awaits you ahead is protecting people\u2019s rights. As you have taken an oath today, you are expected to be neutral,\u201d Akol advised.<\/p>\n He urged the election officials to distance themselves from political affiliation or being a political sympathizer.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you are a sympathizer for any political party from today, I want you to dress a new court, the new task, because you are expected to be neutral such that the results that would be produced will be credible, and fair he appealed\u201d<\/p>\n According to the Political Parties Act, the registration deadline, or the cut-off date for those political parties that are aspiring to participate in the December elections, has elapsed.<\/p>\n \u201cThe law says that for a political party to participate in an election, it must register 180 days prior to the elections. I think we have already infringed on the 180 days.\u201d<\/p>\n Martin Elia Lomuro, the Minister of Cabinet Affairs, in his remarks echoed the same sentiment.<\/p>\n Lomuro cited the 2010 Sudan general election, in which some people rebelled, believing that their votes were taken away, adding that the electoral officials have to change their characters.<\/p>\n \u201cYou must be hated. People must hate you for being steadfast and tough; you have no friends; you don\u2019t have a political party; you don\u2019t have a tribe; even your wife should not know what you\u2019re doing; that\u2019s how you\u2019re going to be,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n The minister further urged NEC chair Prof. Abednego to pay his workers more saying this job will deprive them and some people will be their enemies.<\/p>\n \u201cSincerely, this is hard work\u2014organizing elections. You have seen what elections have done to the United States. Donald Trump is being hunted; they want to pull him down, but the man is struggling to stay on,\u201d Lomuro continued.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to see that happening in South Sudan\u2014without fighting, without guns, and without quarrelling\u2014no, just go talk and convince the people that\u2019s what we want, and that is the responsibility that you (NEC) have in your hands. Don\u2019t let us down.\u201d<\/p>\n In June, Prof. Akok issued an order to establish the State High Election Committees and announced the appointment of chairpersons for high election committees across the 10 states.<\/p>\n The appointed chairpersons heading their respective state high committees are Alphayo Philip Lako for Central Equatoria, Simon Bakama for Western Equatoria, Abdalla Hassan Abididi for Eastern Equatoria, Joseph Akuei for Northern Bahr el Ghazal, and Arkangelo Udo for Western Bahr el Ghazal. Others include Jacob Anei for Warrap state, Tuor Majok for Jonglei, Kot Kuer for Lakes, Peter Mayom Pur for Upper Nile, and George Kuong Gattang for Unity State.<\/p>\n Prof. Akok stated that chairpersons for the three administrative areas\u2014Ruweng, Greater Pibor, and Abyei\u2014were going to follow suit, citing less work in the areas.<\/p>\n He did not confirm during the swearing-in ceremony whether the remaining three pending appointments were later made.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Philip Buda Ladu National Elections Commission (NEC) Chairperson, Professor Abednego Akok Hacuol has directed the state high election committees’ members to immediately begin work in their areas after being sworn in yesterday. On Thursday, the commission held a swearing-in ceremony in Juba that saw members of the State[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":26512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Professor-Abednego-Akok-Hacuol-chairperson-of-the-National-Election-Commission.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26511"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26513,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26511\/revisions\/26513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}