![South Sudan's First Vice President and SPLM-IO leader Dr. Riek Machar Teny attends the initialing of the revitalized peace agreement in Khartoum in August 2018 [Photo by Reuters]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sudanspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/images-1.jpeg?resize=738%2C416&ssl=1)
Speaking during a press conference in Juba on Sunday, Oyet Nathaniel, the SPLM-IO deputy chairman, said that his group is ready for elections that will be free and fair.
“Our position as SPLM-IO is that we are ready for elections that are free, fair and credible elections, not sham elections,” Oyet said.
“And that means for us to arrive for elections, we must budget for it now in order to carry out activities that will take us to elections,” he added.
Oyet also called on the Ministry of Finance to consider working on a supplementary budget to address any financial requirements related to the electoral process.
“The Caucus urged the National Ministry of Finance to cause without delay a supplementary budget in the FY2023/2024 Budget for the following critical pending tasks of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan for timely conduct of free, fair and credible elections,” he said.
South Sudan has never conducted elections as a country. It gained its independence from Sudan in July 2011, but a deadly civil war fought mainly along ethnic lines between factions led by President Salva Kiir and Machar erupted two years later.
The war ended with the signing of the revitalized peace agreement in 2018 with elections being set for end of the transitional period in 2023. However, due to unimplemented provisions of the deal, the parties in August last year postponed the polls to December 2024.
Despite concerns that the elections may not take place as peace implementation continue to stall, Kiir earlier this month told a large number of his supporters in Western Bahr el Ghazal states’ capital Wau that elections will take place in December 2024 as planned.
If that happens, it will be the first time for the world’s youngest country to see elections and will mark the end of transitional governments.
![South Sudan's then newly removed FVP Dr. Riek Machar Teny speaks during a meeting of the SPLM-IO political bureau in Khartoum, Sudan. [Photo by SUNA]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sudanspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Riek_Machar.jpg?resize=120%2C86&ssl=1)
![Western Equatoria Governor Alfred Futuyo. [Photo courtesy]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sudanspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/636cb412dcb26.jpg?resize=120%2C86&ssl=1)
Am interested to have all news update daily. in Unity state -Bentiu.