Religious leaders in South Sudan call for timely elections

A group of religious leaders gathered together during the Prayer for Peace session held in Palabek Refugee camp (Picture by Robert Ojok. 04 December 2019)

South Sudanese religious leaders urged the government on Wednesday to conduct elections on time.

The primate of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan (ECSS), Archbishop Justin Badi Arama, said the ECSS leadership appeals to the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity and friends of South Sudan to ensure that elections are held without further extensions so that the lives of innocent citizens are not put at risk, because they do not want any more bloodshed in the country.

“We are all in agreement that the election must be conducted. However, we are very much concerned that most of the key prerequisites of the election process are not fully implemented. We are saying that before the election, all these prerequisites must be fully implemented,” Arama said in a press briefing.

He said the revitalized peace agreement has numerous pending tasks, including security arrangements, the reconstitution of the National Election Commission, funding of the election budget, the repatriation and reintegration of returnees, and the reconstitution of the Political Parties Council.

South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir early this month pledged to hold the country's first elections since independence next year and said he would run for the nation’s highest office as the flag bearer for his Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) party.

Kiir stressed that there will be no more extensions of the transitional period once it ends in 2024

South Sudan is scheduled to hold general elections in December 2024