South Sudan marks 15 years of independence but election test awaits
It is 15 years since South Sudan gained independence from Sudan, but the spillover from a bloody civil war has locked the world’s youngest country in a stalemate that has seen its first-ever election delayed four times.
The polls are due to take place in December 2026, although concerns about electoral readiness persist, while progress towards a new constitution has stalled.
President Salva Kiir has been in power since independence. He is locked in a long-standing power struggle with his rival and suspended deputy, Riek Machar. This has made pursuit of an election a tense affair.
The two men are signatories to a 2018 peace agreement following a civil war that broke out in 2013, killing nearly 400,000 people and displacing millions of others, according to aid agencies.
The peace deal allowed Kiir to remain in charge with Machar as First Vice-President under a unity government. However, growing distrust between their factions saw Machar suspended from his role by President Kiir last year.
Machar was then put under house arrest and charged with treason and crimes against humanity. He denies the charges.
Many in the country feel the December vote would bestow a new government with a popular mandate to allow for state-building and enable citizens to demand accountability.
“We want to move out of the peace agreement. Only with elections can we create new legitimacy in government because what we have now are people who are accountable only to parties to the peace agreement. We want a government that is accountable to us,” Prof Abraham Kuol Nyuon, a political analyst at the University of Juba, tells TRT Afrika.
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Huge swathes of the country are marred by continued armed conflict and mass displacement.
Government forces retain control over most state capitals and major towns, while opposition forces hold rural areas in the oil-rich eastern and northern parts of the country.
Machar’s group, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO), has warned against voter registration and campaigning in territories under its control, saying the “country is at war”.
South Sudan’s elections have been repeatedly postponed. Previously set dates include 2015, 2018, 2021, 2023, and late 2024.
Even with the latest date of 22 December 2026, there have been warnings, including from the UN, that the current volatile situation may take the country to the brink of another civil war and delay the vote further.
“To proceed with elections without consensus among the parties who were in conflict that generated the transitional period may give us a hard time in creating peace and stability in the country for the election,” rights activist Edmond Yakani, the executive director of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), tells TRT Afrika.
Legal and financial hurdles
When announcing the date for the election, electoral boss Abednego Akok Kacuol acknowledged concerns about the legal framework and financial constraints ahead of the vote. He said funding for the elections lies with the government.
Of the $250 million required to organize the elections, the electoral commission had received $21 million with $15 million from international partners while the remaining $6 million provided by the government.