Machar says South Sudan not ready for elections

JUBA – The leader of the main opposition group, Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) and the country’s First Vice President Riek Machar said on Thursday that the country is not yet prepared to hold the December 2023 elections.

Machar revealed this during his meeting with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for South Sudan and head of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), Mr. Nicholas Haysom in Juba on Thursday, according to his office.

“Dr. Machar also expressed the readiness of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-In Opposition (SPLM-IO) for elections. However, he pointed out that the country is not yet ready for it and that the prerequisites must be met for the elections to be successful,” Machar’s office said in a statement following the meeting.

Machar, according to the statement, said elections cannot be held until a series of conditions are met, including the full implementation of the security arrangement provided for in the revitalized peace agreement.

“These prerequisites include the full implementation of security arrangements, the repatriation of refugees and IDPs to their places of origin, conducting censuses, establishing a permanent constitution, and availing of funds for activities leading to the elections, among others,” it said.

He said for elections to be democratic and peaceful, the prerequisites must be met to enable the country to conduct fair, free, credible, and transparent polls.

The polls, now scheduled for December 2024, will be the first in the world’s newest country, which seceded from Sudan 12 years ago.

Last year, President Salva Kiir announced that elections would be conducted at the end of the transitional period.