FVP Dr. Riek Machar and VP Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior - CREDIT | Eye Radio | Nov. 2021

There will be no fair and free elections in 2023 unless key provisions in the 2018 peace deal are fully implemented, the First Vice President, Dr. Riak Machar has said.

According to the implementation matrix of the September 2018 agreement, South Sudan was supposed to go to polls in 2022 after implementation of key provisions of the agreement.

The key provisions include unification of the former warring forces, repatriation of the refugees and displaced persons, conduct of population census and development of the country’s permanent constitution.

In addition, the Political Parties Act of 2012 must be reviewed and approved by the parliament to enable free and democratic registration of political parties in South Sudan.

But the parliament is yet to enact the political parties’ bill.

Despite the slowness, President Salva Kiir last week told the citizens that the much-anticipated general elections would take place in 2023 as planned.

In what appears to be a response to Kiir’s statement, Dr. Riak Machar says implementation of security arrangements is critical for a fair, free, transparent elections.

“For us to have fair, free, transparent elections, you must have security forces who will protect the state, its people and that will not interfere with the electoral process,” Dr. Riek told Governors’ forum in Juba on Monday.

“If we are going to go for elections, we must complete in the shortest possible time the security arrangement.

“Our refugees are not coming because we have not moved forward on the security arrangement. Once they know we have moved forward with the security arrangement, they will come.

“They want to come back to a secure environment. They don’t want to come back to an environment when they see they might run back for refuge.”

Dr. Machar was speaking during the opening of the fifth governors’ forum in Juba today.

For her part, the Vice President for Gender and Youth Cluster – Rebecca Nyandeng – agrees with Dr. Machar.

She argues that most of the voters are still in the refugee camps.

“We have a lot of challenges, people talk about elections, you cannot prepare for election before we bring our people from the refugee camp and our people in the displaced camps to be settled,” VP Nyandeng said.

“We are being pressured by our host countries who are hosting our refugees that by next year they don’t want to see our people in their countries.

“I want you, the governors, to know this. We will prepare our people early next year so that there will be a committee that will be formed by us, UNHCR and all our partners so that we can visit those host countries where our refugees are.”

According to UNHCR reports, more than 2 million South Sudanese refugees in the neighboring countries.