Voters during the 2010 general elections in Sudan. File Photo
As the clock ticks down, it is barely eight months remaining for South Sudanese to walk to polling stations to elect their representatives through free, fair, credible, and peaceful elections to bring to an end the long transition period.
However, the Key electoral institutions are still in the process of restructuring and establishing offices both in the national capital, Juba and in the ten states plus three administrative areas.
Yet, it is quite too early to tell whether the elections will be free and fair. The parties that are part of the transitional government of national unity are still locked in a tough debate over the credibility of the anticipated elections, with opposition parties calling on the ruling party to open up the civic and political space to allow the citizens to speak freely without fear of reprisal.
The Chairman of South Sudan’s National Elections Commission (NEC) Professor Abednego Akok announced that the first phase of voter registration will commence in June to ascertain the number of voters across the country.
According to the South Sudan National Elections Act, 2023, voter registration should begin six months before elections.
Speaking to the media in Juba on Tuesday, NEC Chairperson Prof. Abednego Akok said the Commission would gazette polling centers where the voter registration exercise will begin in June.
“Some procedures must be fulfilled; one is your Boma, your Payam, County, and State. Your name must be registered, and that is voter education, which will begin in June this year,” a local radio report.
Prof. Akok underscored the importance of the mass voter registration exercise and called on the citizens to turn up in large numbers to register.
“A draft has been made, and that draft is to be discussed by the stakeholders. After they confirm it, then it will be declared to you at a separate press conference. But we, as a commission, we are saying that in June, that is where the registration of the voters will begin because the law says the registration must begin six months before, and we begin now in June, and we move ahead,” Akol said.
The NEC Chairperson announced again that the Commission has recently received funds for pre-election activities. He, however, did not say how much money the Commission received from the government.
“As I just said before, the Council of Ministers has passed the budget, and it is now before the National Legislative Assembly. What has been received or what has been released is a very small sum of money to cover pre-election activities,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Edmund Yakani, Executive Director for Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), said: “I wish the voter education should start quickly, and I urge the political parties to abstain from confrontational and conflicting statements that sometimes raise citizens’ level of mistrust and lack of confidence in the conduct of elections to be peaceful, democratic, fair and free.”
“There is a need to hurry up in terms of voter education because the time left for elections is so limited. I call on the Commission to brief Parliament so that dialogue on elections can take place. But I urge the Commission to increase the level of transparency when addressing the public,” he added.
