\n South Sudan will begin voter registration on Saturday for its first ever elections, the country's poll body said, setting a tight schedule for a vote slated for December 22.\n<\/p>\n
\n After obtaining independence from Sudan in 2011, the world's youngest country is rushing to organise presidential and parliamentary elections -- already much-postponed -- whilst violence continues to plague the country.\n<\/p>\n
\n In addition, former vice-president Riek Machar, President Salva Kiir's main opponent, has been under house arrest since March 2025, accused of \"crimes against humanity\".\n<\/p>\n
\n A bloody civil war between the forces of Machar and Kiir from 2013 to 2018 led to more than 400,000 deaths.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The voter registration shall commence on 14 November 2026 and shall close on 28 November 2026,\" Gabriel Bol Deng, chairman of the National Electoral Commission, told a news conference on Friday.\n<\/p>\n
\n A total of 3,161 registration centres have been set up across the country and more than 22,000 staff have been recruited for the operation, he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Whilst poll-related equipment has arrived in the capitals of the 10 federal states and the three administrative zones where the elections will be held, it is expected to take several more days to reach some centres further afield, Deng said, meaning less time to register voters in some places.\n<\/p>\n
\n He added, however, that the logistics were in place to ensure they did get there.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"After 15 days, the commission will publish the preliminary register showing how many people are eligible to vote,\" Deng explained.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"If someone does not have an ID, especially in villages, paramount chiefs and other community chiefs can identify that person. We also have identification forms for this purpose.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n The polls loom, though, with South Sudan lacking a constitution.\n<\/p>\n
\n In late October, the UN Human Rights Commission in South Sudan described significant shortcomings compounded by the dissolution of a government of national unity as a \"constitutional coup\" ahead of an election which they feared could risk triggering a war.\n<\/p>\n
\n The past months have seen clashes between forces loyal to both Kiir and Machar.\n<\/p>\n
\n Furthermore, according to the World Bank, some 90 percent of the 15 million inhabitants have no state-recognised identification, which threatens to complicate their registration.\n<\/p>\n
\n For such people, particularly in rural areas, they will be identified by community leaders and then be issued with an \"identification form\" enabling them to vote, Bol Deng noted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
South Sudan will begin voter registration on Saturday for its first ever elections, the country's poll body said, setting a tight schedule for a vote slated for December 22. After obtaining independence from Sudan in 2011, the world's youngest country is rushing to organise presidential and parliamentary elections -- already much-postponed -- whilst violence continues […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-168476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n