UN envoy says South Sudan is not ready to hold its first post-independence elections in December
South Sudan is not yet ready to hold its first post-independence elections in December. Political parties are discussing whether to hold elections this year, the top UN envoy to the troubled African nation said Wednesday.
Nicolas Haysom told the UN Security Council that the consultations make it difficult to consider the December 22 election date, announced last month by the National Electoral Commission, as “a definitive trigger, separate from other critical factors.”
The mood, which the First since South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after a long conflict, it is meant to be the culmination of a peace deal signed five years ago to bring the world’s newest nation out of a civil war largely based on ethnic divisions. Fighting between forces loyal to current president Salva Kiir and those loyal to current vice president Riek Machar has left some 400,000 people dead.
Last December, Haysom outlined a series of conditions needed to hold credible and peaceful elections. In April, he told the Security Council that the parties had not implemented a “critical mass” of key steps for free and fair elections — and he told the UN’s most powerful body on Wednesday that his assessment remains the same today.
On a positive note, the Electoral Commission has begun assessing “the infrastructure and ground-level facilities required to create a conducive environment for holding elections”, and 29 political parties have been registered.
The UN peacekeeping mission will continue to “support the creation of an enabling environment for elections in South Sudan, whenever they are held,” with an emphasis on its mandate to help protect civilians, Haysom said.
He said there are concerns among large sections of civil society, political parties, the Commission on Human Rights and the international community about a bill recently passed by the South Sudanese parliament that would establish the National Security Service the power to make arrests without a warrant.
Critics of the security law say it runs counter to “their aspirations for an open civil and political space” to build a democratic society and is incompatible with the spirit of South Sudan’s transitional constitution and the country’s human rights obligations, he said.
“It has been noted that the president has the power to refer the bill back to parliament to address the criticisms that have been raised,” Haysom said. “This would be an important opportunity to demonstrate that we are committed to achieving the open political space in which we can hold the first democratic elections in South Sudan.”
US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council that The United States and many diplomatic missions are deeply concerned about the security law “could further undermine the country’s political and social climate.”
Regarding the country’s humanitarian and economic outlook, Haysom warned that “there is a perfect storm brewing.”
He pointed to chronic food insecurity, the spillover from the conflict in neighboring Sudan, a rapidly deteriorating economy exacerbated by a ruptured oil pipeline and a reduction in revenues, “and the potential for a unique flood in September.”
“Each of these elements poses a significant challenge on its own,” Haysom said. “Taken together, they could push the country to a tipping point — all at a time when the people of South Sudan “begin a delicate phase of nation building.”
Edem Wosornu, director of operations at the UN humanitarian office, gave the council some shocking figures: more than 9 million people, 76% of South Sudan’s population, are in need of humanitarian assistance and 7.1 million people are “acutely food insecure, an increase of about 1.5 million people compared to last year.”
Wosornu said mid-year projections from UN food security experts indicated that conflict and flooding “could lead to famine between June 2024 and January 2025.”
The humanitarian situation in South Sudan is being exacerbated by a deepening economic crisis, she said. Most oil exports have been halted since February because of the ruptured pipeline. A depreciation of more than 70% of the South Sudanese pound in the first six months of 2024 has made basic commodities unaffordable for many people, with annual inflation reaching 97% in June, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.