The Troika of US, Norway and the UK has called on South Sudan leaders to ensure the scheduled December 2024 elections happen.
In a joint statement on Tuesday, the three governments said the South Sudan parties must urgently take steps necessary to ensure genuine and peaceful elections in December this year.
“Following recent senior-level visits from our capitals to Juba, the governments of Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States reaffirm our call for South Sudan’s leaders urgently to take steps necessary to ensure genuine and peaceful elections in December.
“This process should address the ten questions posed by the trilateral mechanism (UN, AU and IGAD). Not taking these critical steps and so not allowing elections would be a collective failure on the part of South Sudan’s leaders,” the joint statement released by the US State Department said in part.
In July 2023, the UN, AU and IGAD presented a list of 10 questions to be answered by the parties in the South Sudan political process seeking clarity on the elections.
Among the issues covered included the level at which elections will be held, the participation of refugees, and various mechanisms for administration of elections and handling of complaints.
The questions also highlighted the importance of agreeing on a voter registration process, the census or any other acceptable source of population data.
UN, RJMEC CONCERNS
In December 2023, Nicholas Haysom, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of UNMISS, in a statement to the Security Council decried that the questions had not been dealt with by the parties, nor an appropriate legal framework set up to resolve these issues.
Eleven months to the election at the time, Haysom said UN member states had enquired of UNMISS as to whether South Sudan was capable of holding free, fair, credible, and especially peaceful elections.
“We have clearly stated that, as matters stand now, the country is not yet in a position to hold credible elections, a view shared by almost all key stakeholders across the political spectrum,” he said.
This is a position repeatedly shared by the Revitalized Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC), which has maintained key conditions are yet to be met, and parties are behind the set timelines.
On March 16, for instance, RJMEC chairman Amb Maj Gene (Rtd) Charles Gituai said progress in security sector reforms such as the unification of forces and the beginning of Phase II, and lack of requisite political and financial support for key institutions needed for elections, remained a concern.
During a meeting with with Ministers for Defence and Veterans Affairs and Interior Lt. Gen. Chol Thon J Balok and Angelina Teny, respectively, Amb. Gituai emphasized on the need to create an enabling environment for safe, secure, free, fair and credible elections.
“As such, he said, the security sector need to be reformed in line with the dictates of the Revitalised Peace Agreement,” RJMEC said in a statement.
It is in this regard that the US, the UK and Norway Troika further urged the transitional government to use public revenue in a transparent manner to address public needs, including funding and operationalization of electoral institutions.
“Our relationship with South Sudan remains based on our conviction that the South Sudanese people deserve peace, human rights, democracy, and a government that is responsive to the needs of its citizens. We look to South Sudan’s leaders to demonstrate that they share these values by honoring their own commitments to their people,”” they conclude in the statement.
NO EXTENSION
As partners to the South Sudanese peace process raise concerns about the readiness for a free, fair and peaceful election in December, Minister of Presidential Affairs, Bangasi Joseph Bakosoro on Tuesday said President Salva Kiir does not want another extension beyond December 2024.
Admitting the President is under pressure to ensure the election proceeds as scheduled, Minister Basokoro told partners at the opening of a civic and political dialogue on the political transition in Juba that President Kiir and his ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) party see no alternative to the elections.
“The elections should go ahead as scheduled. No more extension of the term of the current transitional government after the expiry of the roadmap,” Bakosoro, who represented President Kiir at the function said.
“You are not with the president and if you were in his shoes, you would understand what he goes through each day”.
The UN said no extension, the Troika said no extension, the EU said no extension and the IGAD said no extension. Then who are you or me to say there must be an extension again? We don’t want it,” he posed.
He added that while the political parties were set for a dialogue about the polls, it is for the civil society to tell the government what they thing should be the way forward is.
First Vice President Riek Machar in a letter to JMEC said he supports the political dialogue to discuss the election.
Responding to the March 15 letter by Amb Gituai, Machar said, “I would like to welcome and express our support for the proposal that the peace parties to the agreement dialogue on these issues to chart a way forward for peaceful elections and the transition to democracy”.
He added that in light of the challenges registered during the five years of implementation of the peace deal, his party SPLM-IO believes dialogue and its outcome shall only be credible in the presence of the mediator.
Machar emphasized the need for political will among the parties to address the challenges in implementing the pending tasks critical to paving the way for the conduct of free, fair and credible elections in December ahead of the transitional period that ends in February 2025.
