Lorna Merekaje, Secretary-General of the South Sudan Democratic Engagement, Monitoring and Observation Programme (SSuDEMOP) speaks at a forum in Juba. March 13, 2024. (Photo: Charles Wote/Eye Radio).

A civil society activist has called for equal campaigning ground for all political parties as the country is expected to hold its first-ever elections in nine months’ time.

Lorna Merekaje, Secretary-General of the South Sudan Democratic Engagement, Monitoring and Observation Programme (SSuDEMOP), said South Sudan is a multi-party nation that requires contesting process during the elections.

“There has to be equal playground for campaigns to happen,” she said at a dialogue organized on Wednesday by Community Initiative Development Association on the December 2024 elections.

Merekaje made the statement amid reported harassments against political groups trying to establish their presence either in SPLM or SPLM-IO controlled areas in the states and administrative areas.

In August 2023, Information Minister Michael Makuei said the parties to the 2018 peace agreement are free to conduct political rallies and campaigns ahead of the 2024 elections.

Makuei stated that all parties can exercise their freedom of expression and that of assembly.

“At the moment, we are seeing one party out there, but the other parties are not campaigning. Election is a contested process among different actors and South Sudan is known to be going into a multi-party election. So, we want to see so many parties out their contesting.”

The National Elections Commission said on Wednesday it has prepared elections calendar as it awaits pending critical matters to be addressed before embarking on pre-elections activities.

This was as the United States said the unity government in South Sudan is yet to demonstrate the political will to establish a conducive environment for free and fair elections as scheduled, in December 2024.

Activist Merekaje reminded the parties willing to contest for public positions in December’s general elections to adhere to the electoral rules and regulations.

“There has to be a process of nomination. You don’t just declare and then you become the candidate and people go vote for you.”

“It is not our business to vote for anybody who has not gone through nomination process if the citizens understand the process well.”

“We can choose not to vote; we can choose to go and protest by wasting the ballot papers. That can be done because official nomination is part of the process.”  

Chapter one of the amended National Elections Act 2012 stipulates that a person nominated for the office of the President shall be seconded by 10,000 registered voters from at least seven states with no less then 200 voters from each state.

It also indicates that a person nominated for the office of the state governor shall be seconded by 500 registered voters from at least half of the counties with no less than 100 voters from each county.