South Sudan to hold elections in 2024 without population census, government says

JUBA, AUGUST 16, 2023 (SUDANS POST) – The government of South Sudan has said that it will hold elections in 2024 without conducting a population census.

The country’s information minister Michael Makuei Lueth said on Tuesday that the census would take too long and force an extension of the transition period again.

“There are people who say we would not go for elections unless the population census is conducted. For what?” he asked. “For you to conduct a population census, you need two years; we are not ready to go beyond that.”

Makuei who is also the government spokesman also said that the conduct of elections is not permanently paired with the pre-election tasks in the agreement.

He argued that the vote could stand as an independent exercise, citing the provisions of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 as an example.

“There are those who believe that we are not going for elections unless all the provisions of the agreement are implemented; that is rubbish; even the provisions of the CPA up to now are not all implemented,” Makuei said.

In April, the government released results of a 2021 population estimate survey, putting President Salva Kiir Mayardit’s home state of Warrap at the helm with more than 2,639,487, a 171.47% increase from the 2008 population census which put Warrap at 972,928.

Experts and activists expressed concerns over the results and warned that they could be used to rig future elections by the government.

Jok Madut Jok, an academic and professor of anthropology, suggested at the time that the estimates could be the work of the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) led by President Salva Kiir aimed at rigging constituency demarcation and future elections.

“Let’s hope this South Sudan population estimates were concocted by SPLM, as an attempt to rig future constituency demarcation and elections, not the work of Bureau of Statistics!” Jok said.

“It also means that the votes of Bahr Ghazal alone can give a win to whoever can steal these votes, for both presidency and parliament! Nonsense!” he added.

Economist and pro-democracy activist Peter Biar Ajak, who last week launched a new political party called Revive South Sudan Party (RSSP) also expressed suspicion over the population estimates.

“These numbers of South Sudan’s population estimates released by the National Bureau of Statistics are extremely suspicious,” Ajak said.

“It’s hard to believe that the population of Warrap State alone is equal to that of three states of Greater Upper Nile combined,” he added.