By Yiep Joseph<\/p>\n
National Election Commission in the recently drafted regulations on campaigns warned political parties against early campaigns and the misuse of state resources.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n During the engagement with the representative of the political parties, the chairperson of the National Election Commission, Prof. Abednego Akok, expressed that the regulation on campaigns is very clear, citing that parties should respect it.<\/p>\n He said that early campaigning and the use of state resources were inappropriate and urged the political parties to abstain from such situations in order to avoid penalties.<\/p>\n The recently drafted regulation on campaigns stated that all campaigns carried out before the official time shall be regarded as a violation of the code of conduct for political parties and candidates.<\/p>\n \u201cAll campaign activities conducted before the official start of the election campaign period, as this is determined and announced by the NEC, and during the 24 hours prior to polling day until the closing of the polls, shall be considered unauthorized and a violation of the code of conduct for political parties and candidates,\u201d the drafted regulation party read.<\/p>\n In regard to the resources used during campaigns, the commission directed the parties and candidates never to use public resources for their campaigns.<\/p>\n \u201cPolitical parties and\/or candidates registered to contest an election shall not use state or administrative resources, human resources, or public materials during the election campaign period for the purpose of campaigning,\u201d it read.<\/p>\n According to the law, the state resources, including government-owned cars, resources, and others that are meant for public benefits.<\/p>\n With hope to enforce such law, the National Election Commission would have imposed punishment on parties and candidates involved in either early campaigns or misuse of state resources.<\/p>\n \u201cThe NEC may impose administrative penalties proportionate to the unauthorized campaign activities while addressing relevant complaints,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n Akok urged the parties to respect the law in order for the country to have a peaceful election in the country. In May this year, the Sudan People\u2019s Liberation Movement (SPLM) party, Greater Equatoria chapter, endorsed President Salva Kiir as the sole party flagbearer for the now-postponed December 2024 general election.<\/p>\n This followed the separate endorsement by the Greater Bhar el Ghazal region that attracted masses in Wau, the headquarters of the region.<\/p>\n However, the endorsements, which were covered with campaign-like activities, received criticism from the public, with others questioning the resource use during the process.<\/p>\n Some members of the public went ahead to question where the SPLM gets money to carry out all those endorsement rallies while the country’s civil servants stay for months without getting salaries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Yiep Joseph National Election Commission in the recently drafted regulations on campaigns warned political parties against early campaigns and the misuse of state resources. During the engagement with the representative of the political parties, the chairperson of the National Election Commission, Prof. Abednego Akok, expressed that the regulation on[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":31871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31870","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\/12\/Prof-Abednego-Akok-Chairperson-of-National-Election-Commission-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31870","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=31870"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31873,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31870\/revisions\/31873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nHe expressed that the commission would continue to engage the political parties in the country to ensure that they understand the election act in order to pave the way for the upcoming 2026 election.<\/p>\n