Amid calls for elections, National Bureau of Statistics says no money to conduct census

JUBA – As calls for conduct of elections on time, as provided for in the revitalized peace agreement, surge, South Sudan’s National Bureau of Statistics has said that there is no money to conduct national population census which is important for conduct of elections.

According to the revitalized peace agreement, South Sudan shall conduct elections at the end of the transitional period which ends in May 2022.

Speaking at a function in Juba on Tuesday to mark the World Statistics Day, the Chairperson of National Bureau of Statistics, Isaiah Chol Aruai, said there are no funds for the government institution to conduct population census which must be done before elections.

“If there are no resources available for us even to collect CPI, one wonders where will the money come from to be used for the census? We are still waiting for political direction,” Chol told audience in Juba.

“The question whether there is going to be a census or an election are political decisions and they have to be directed and if you recall in the revitalized peace agreement, chapter one, it is a must to have a census. You can’t have an election without census but if a political decision says you must have election without census, it is political,” he added.

He further said: “We will see how they are going to do it and what mechanism they are going to use. In the agreement now there is a provision for a census to be done prior to the election.”

South Sudan population is 8.7 million based on the 2008 census in which the then government of Southern Sudan disputed the figures. An estimation in 2012 which largely based on the estimate of 2008 population growth put the country’s population at 12 million.