PREVIEW
Electoral law changes boost the president as oppositionists and rights groups ask whether the vote can be credible
Absolute power appears to be the sole objective of President Salva Kiir Mayardit’s moves to dissolve government but replace it by decree with a handpicked caretaker administration.
A revised National Elections Act signed by Salva Kiir on 21 September allows him to remain in office with full constitutional powers – without any checks and balances – during the campaign period.
There is no electoral register or census in place after Salva Kiir passed amendments to the 2018 peace agreement in June making them optional (AC Vol 67 No 7, Siege mentality pushes politics to brink). Nor are there any other candidates on the presidential ballot apart from Salva Kiir – Garang Malong Awan, the son of Salva Kiir's former chief of staff, General Paul Malong Awan, had hoped to be on the ballot but was conspicuous by his absence (AC Vol 65 No 20, Salva Kiir extends his rule as the oil cash runs out).
The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-In Opposition, the party of Riek Machar, says that it rejected a proposed inter-party dialogue on 24 September because the elections process was a ‘sham’ and had been presented as a fait accompli. Machar is under house arrest, as he has been since March 2025, again despite international demands for his release.
It also looks like an attempt to bluff the international community. European Union Ambassador to South Sudan, Pelle Enarsson, says the bloc has no funds allocated for the polls because it has received no election plan from Juba. He warned that organising credible elections poses an ‘incredible challenge’.
Washington has taken a weaker position, stating on 31 August that ‘that the timing and scope of South Sudanese elections are sovereign decisions for South Sudanese to make’ and that it expects Juba’s leaders to ‘fund them with South Sudan’s own public resources.’
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