{"id":41614,"date":"2025-12-19T16:23:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T14:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/?p=41614"},"modified":"2025-12-19T16:23:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T14:23:07","slug":"south-sudan-moves-to-amend-peace-deal-as-elections-face-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/19\/south-sudan-moves-to-amend-peace-deal-as-elections-face-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"South Sudan Moves to Amend Peace Deal as Elections Face challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>By Alan Clement <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Presidency has approved proposed amendments to the 2018 Revitalised Peace Agreement, acknowledging that existing provisions of the deal have created structural obstacles delaying preparations for national elections.<\/p>\n

The decision was reached during an expanded special session of the Presidency chaired by President Salva Kiir Mayardit on December 17, bringing together senior government leaders and political parties.<\/p>\n

According to an official communiqu\u00e9 from the presidency, the meeting unanimously endorsed amendments to what were described as \u201ckey provisions\u201d of the peace agreement that have hindered progress toward elections.<\/p>\n

Speaking to journalists after the meeting, Minister of Cabinet Affairs Dr. Martin Elia Lomuro said the approved draft amendments would now follow established institutional procedures.<\/p>\n

He explained that the proposals would first be tabled before the Council of Ministers, then submitted to the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC), before being presented to the National Legislative Assembly for debate and final approval.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe adopted changes will now follow institutional processes,\u201d Lomuro said, adding that the intention is to remove legal and procedural bottlenecks that have stalled the country\u2019s electoral roadmap.<\/p>\n

South Sudan has yet to conduct a national election since gaining independence in 2011. Under the Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS), signed in September 2018, elections were initially scheduled for the end of a transitional period.<\/p>\n

However, the vote has been postponed multiple times due to incomplete implementation of key benchmarks, including security sector reforms, the unification of armed forces, the drafting of a permanent constitution, and the conduct of a population census.<\/p>\n

While the Presidency frames the amendments as necessary to break the deadlock, civil society activists have called for an inclusive process.<\/p>\n

Edmund Yakani, a human rights advocate and Executive Director of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), emphasized that the amendment process should involve all stakeholders and not only the signatory parties to the peace agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean the stakeholders and the parties who are signatory to the R-ARCSS should be all together in a conversation to make that principle function this time,\u201d Yakani told this outlet.<\/p>\n

He added that past agreements have failed not because of principle, but because of the lack of collective will to implement them.<\/p>\n

Yakani warned that excluding stakeholders undermines the legitimacy of the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe abuse of the word stakeholders by the parties is not the right way. They should facilitate this process,\u201d he said, urging political parties to engage in dialogue where every signatory and relevant actor can participate.<\/p>\n

He also highlighted concerns over security arrangements, including the unification of forces and control over community defense units, which remain incomplete and could threaten elections, particularly for the SPLM-IO party whose leader, Riek Machar, is currently under trial.<\/p>\n

Dabek Mabior, Deputy Chairperson of the South Sudan Civil Society Alliances, welcomed the decision to amend the peace agreement but cautioned that the changes must uphold democratic principles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe stand firm and committed to democratic principle in the country,\u201d Mabior said.<\/p>\n

He added that stakeholders should guide the parties in implementing the peace process to ensure citizens can exercise their democratic rights.<\/p>\n

RJMEC, the internationally supported oversight body, will play a central role in reviewing the amendments before parliamentary debate.<\/p>\n

Activists note that while the legal adjustments are critical, credible elections will also depend on tangible progress in security, civic registration, and transitional justice, benchmarks embedded in the R-ARCSS that remain partially unfulfilled.<\/p>\n

If successfully adopted and implemented, the amendments would mark a significant step toward South Sudan\u2019s first-ever national election since independence, but civil society warns that inclusivity, transparency, and security remain vital to avoid repeating past failures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0By Alan Clement The Presidency has approved proposed amendments to the 2018 Revitalised Peace Agreement, acknowledging that existing provisions of the deal have created structural obstacles delaying preparations for national elections. The decision was reached during an expanded special session of the Presidency chaired by President Salva Kiir Mayardit on[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":41615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41614","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\/2025\/12\/Cabinat.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41614","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41614"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41616,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41614\/revisions\/41616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}