South Sudan is entering another critical stage of its political transition. Parliament is considering amendments to the National Elections Act, while an inter-party dialogue has been scheduled for September 24 to discuss outstanding electoral and political questions ahead of the planned December 22, 2026 elections.<\/p>\n
The renewed focus on elections is important. Citizens have waited for an opportunity to participate in choosing their leaders through a democratic process. However, the country must also ask a fundamental question: are preparations for elections moving faster than the reforms necessary to make those elections credible, peaceful, and inclusive?<\/p>\n
The 2018 peace agreement did not envisage elections as an isolated event. It linked elections to wider reforms, including constitutional development, electoral legislation, security arrangements, and strengthening of institutions to support a democratic transition.<\/p>\n
The agreement also called for an independent and competent National Elections Commission and reforms to the National Elections Act.<\/p>\n
Some of these areas have moved forward, but several important provisions remain incomplete. The United Nations has previously identified outstanding issues involving transitional security arrangements, public finance management, reconstruction, transitional justice, and the permanent constitution-making process.<\/p>\n
More recently, UN officials have stressed that questions surrounding the unification of forces, civic and political space, election resources, insecurity, and displacement remain important to credible elections.<\/p>\n
This is why the proposed amendment to the Election Act and the forthcoming inter-party dialogue should not be treated simply as procedural exercises. They should provide an opportunity to resolve disagreements openly and build political confidence.<\/p>\n
The inter-party dialogue is particularly important because questions about the type, timing, and sequencing of elections; representation; constituencies; independent candidates; campaign financing; and security require broad political understanding. Reports indicate that the dialogue is intended to bring political actors together to address such outstanding questions.<\/p>\n
Parliament, meanwhile, has a responsibility to scrutinise every proposed amendment carefully. Election laws should not merely facilitate polling day. They must protect the rights of voters, candidates, and political parties; provide clear competition rules; and strengthen public confidence in the results.<\/p>\n
South Sudan should therefore resist the temptation to measure election preparedness only by legislation passed or dates announced. A successful election is more than voting on a particular day. It requires credible institutions, adequate voter education, political freedoms, security, transparent procedures, and acceptance of the outcome.<\/p>\n
The December 22 date may provide a clear political target, but the reforms supporting that election must receive equal attention. The country should move toward elections, but it should also move toward the democratic and peacebuilding reforms that give those elections meaning.<\/p>\n
The question is not whether South Sudan should prepare for elections. It is whether the preparations are keeping pace with the reforms required to make those elections a credible step toward lasting democratic governance.<\/p>\n
God protect South Sudan.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Be the spectator!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" South Sudan is entering another critical stage of its political transition. Parliament is considering amendments to the National Elections Act, while an inter-party dialogue has been scheduled for September 24 to discuss outstanding electoral and political questions ahead of the planned December 22, 2026 elections. The renewed focus on elections[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":45757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122,80,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nation-talk","category-national","category-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/NATION-TALKS-LOGO-2.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48090","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\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48090"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48093,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48090\/revisions\/48093"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}