The Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) has called on the East African regional bloc (IGAD) to provide necessary support to the South Sudan government to enable it prepare and hold free, fair and credible elections in 2024.
“The members of the regional and international community should really stand with the people of South Sudan for the conduct of the national general elections expected to be held in December 2024 without any failure,” Edmund Yakani, the executive director of CEPO said in a statement issued in Juba on Wednesday.
Nicholas Haysom, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) in March, said that 2023 is a “make or break” year for South Sudan’s bumpy peace process.
Haysom encouraged the parties in the transitional unity government to step up efforts to fully implement outstanding issues such as enactment of the permanent constitution, enactment of electoral laws and establishment of electoral institutions.
He urged the parties to expedite the critical constitutional-making process and the elections’ planning, including the full implementation of the security arrangements.
“The efforts for nurturing democratic governance in South Sudan should not be subjected to political transition process or political elites,” Yakani said.
He called on the international community to ramp up pressure on the parties to the 2018 revitalized peace agreement to enact requisite laws and establish institutions necessary to allow conduct of credible elections.
“This political attitude and culture of administering public affairs through political transitional period in South Sudan must be brought to an end through the genuine conduct of national elections,” Yakani said.
