Crowd of young people attending a concert at John Garang Mausoleum in Juba. | December 2020. | Photo: Pulse

The prevailing political environment in South Sudan is not conducive to the holding of free and fair elections, an activist has said.

Edmond Yakani, the Executive Director of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization said that the country is way behind schedule to hold credible elections with no legal frameworks in place.

He stated that the country is not yet ready for elections, citing lack of a conducive environment.

Yakani said critical tasks are yet to be implemented in the revitalized peace agreement.

The 2018 peace deal obligates the peace government to organize elections sixty days before the end of the current transitional period.

This is expected to enable the establishment of a democratically elected government.

According to the peace agreement implementation matrix, the parties are only left with less than seven months to the end of the transitional period.

Prerequisite to the election, the agreement expects the permanent constitution to be completed and enacted before a new National Elections Commission organizes the polls.

It also states that the Political Parties Act of 2012 must be reviewed and approved by the parliament.

This is to enable free and democratic registration of political parties in the country.

Last month, the parliament deliberated on the provision and controversially approved it, amidst uproar from opposition MPs.

Parliamentarians mainly from the SPLM-IO claimed some articles in the political parties act have been tempered.

Speaker Jemma Nunu, however, said the matter has been referred to the presidency.

Besides, the government is yet to reconstitute an electoral commission, graduate the unified force and implement key judicial and economic reforms, among others.

Speaking on the Dawn this morning, Edmond Yakani said the government should first ensure there is a conducive environment before the country goes for elections.

“We should have a legal framework for elections so that when there is an election dispute we can use this legal framework,” Edmond Yakani told Eye Radio.

“This legal framework is composed of amending the political parties council act, amending the national elections act and which is not yet been done, reconstituting the political parties council, reconstituting the national electoral commission,

“There are two legal frameworks that have to be in place, and this has to be in line with other laws and specific laws that have links with the role of security and defense in the electoral process to make sure that the state institution for security and defense does not take part with one party,

“We need to have elections when communities in terms of civic responsibility are in a position of standing up and exercising their political freedoms to decide on which leaders they want and how are they going to vote,

“Now, if you see, almost over 50% to 40% of communities are inter-communal violence. As we speak now, there is violence going on in our communities, people are killing themselves,

“A conducive environment for conducting peaceful and credible elections is not yet in place.”

In May, the U.S. Embassy in Juba re-emphasized the need for South Sudan leaders to create a conducive environment for a general election if the Biden Administration is to support the exercise.

David Renz, the former Embassy’s Chargé d’Affaires said the US government wants full implementation of key provisions of the 2018 peace agreement.