President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar shaking hands in Juba. |File Photo|.
South Sudan’s Peace Monitoring Body, the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission said failure to implement the critical tasks of the 2018 agreement on the resolution of conflict in the country, hinders the prospects of free, fair, and credible elections at the end of the transitional period this year.
South Sudan anticipates conducting general elections on 22 December 2024, but a lot of necessary electoral activities such as voter registration, civic education, electoral law, permanent constitution, and judicial reforms still lag.
The parties to the revitalized peace deal are stuck in the mud and unable to agree on whether or not the elections should be conducted as scheduled.
Addressing parliamentarians in Juba, the Chairperson of the R-JMEC, Amb. Maj. Gen. Charles Tai Gituai highlighted “insufficient progress” made in the implementation of the Agreement during the reporting period, which was the second quarter of 2024.
“In RJMEC’s assessment, there has been insufficient progress made in the implementation of the R-ARCSS during the reporting period. Key tasks, such as the permanent constitution making, preparations for elections, and the unification of forces, remain largely at the same stage as they were at the end of the previous quarter,” he said.
The Chairperson further cautioned that failure to move forward on these key aspects of the implementation hinders the prospects of holding of elections, scheduled for at the end of the Transitional Period.
“However, while it is encouraging that at least partial funding has been availed to the National Elections Commission (NEC), the Political Parties Council (PPC) and the National Constitutional Review Commission (NCRC), key institutions that will play major roles in the constitution and election processes, more resources are needed.”
Similarly, the level of resources made available to these institutions fall well short of their proposed budgets, hampering their ability to complete the required tasks in line with the R-ARCSS, he said.
Further, Amb. Gituai stressed the need “for a people-led and a people-owned permanent constitution made in accordance with provisions of the Constitution Making Process Act 2022,” as the basis to guide the conduct of a credible free, fair, and peaceful election at the end of the Transitional Period.
In his conclusion, with elections scheduled for December, Amb. Gituai said it is hoped that the dialogue by the Parties to the Agreement will bring clarity on the best way forward.
