Photo: Collected
South Sudan said Friday that long-awaited elections would be postponed for a further two years, once again extending a transitional period agreed in a peace deal.
Citizens have waited to elect their leaders since the country achieved its hard-won independence from Sudan in 2011, with the world's newest nation still dogged by violence, poverty and political infighting.
While a peace agreement six years ago ended a 2013-2018 civil war between President Salva Kiir and his bitter rival, Vice President Riek Machar, feuding between the two has repeatedly delayed a transition that was supposed to pave the way to future elections.
The presidency has "announced an extension of the country's transitional period by two years as well as postponing elections, which were initially scheduled for December 2024 to December 22nd, 2026", Kiir's office said in a Facebook post late Friday.
In the statement, Cabinet Affairs Minister Martin Elia Lomuro said the extension was "in response to the recommendations from both electoral institutions and the security sector".
"We didn't complete all the tasks which are critical for the conduct of elections in December 2024," Lomouro told reporters Friday evening.
Key provisions of the transitional agreement remain unfulfilled -- including the creation of a national constitution and the unification of Kiir and Machar's rival forces -- leaving the international community increasingly exasperated.
Earlier this year, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged parties to take "urgent steps" to allow the election to take place, while the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) warned of a lack of necessary "technical, legal and operational expertise" for voting to proceed in December.
A dire lack of funding -- despite the land-locked nation's rich oil reserves -- has further hobbled efforts, with bodies like the National Election Commission still not fully operational.
And while the commission announced in April that voter registration would begin in June, by early July there was no indication of this happening.
Messenger/Disha
