South Sudanese President Salva Kiir has dissolved the country’s transitional unity government and parliament, three months before elections scheduled for 22 December.
The move brings an end to the power-sharing administration established under the 2018 peace agreement and gives Kiir broad authority during the run-up to what would be South Sudan’s first national elections since independence in 2011.
Under amendments to the National Elections Act approved this week, all vice-presidents, ministers and local administrators were removed, while the national and state assemblies were dissolved.
Kiir will remain president during the election period until an elected successor is sworn in. Some ministers and governors have since been reappointed in caretaker roles to oversee government functions ahead of the vote.
The legal changes also removed previous requirements for South Sudan to complete a permanent constitution and national census before holding elections.
The government says the changes clear obstacles to the long-delayed vote, which has already been postponed twice. Elections had initially been expected in 2022 before being pushed back again in 2024.
However, several major provisions of the 2018 peace agreement remain incomplete.
These include the adoption of a permanent constitution, nationwide voter registration and the unification of armed forces previously loyal to rival political factions.
Kiir, the leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), is expected to contest the presidential election.
His longtime rival and former vice-president Riek Machar remains under detention and is facing charges including treason and murder, which he denies.
Machar had returned to the vice-presidency under the 2018 peace deal after years of conflict between forces loyal to him and Kiir.
That agreement formally ended a five-year civil war that began in 2013 and killed hundreds of thousands of people while displacing millions.
The political transition has taken place under heightened security in the capital, Juba.
Security forces were deployed around government buildings and major roads, while personnel were placed on heightened alert as the transitional institutions were dissolved.
Last week, Kiir also removed the chairman of the National Elections Commission, Abednego Akok Kacuol, and replaced him with Gabriel Bol Deng Majok.
The commission says preparations for the December elections are continuing, including plans for voter registration and the establishment of polling centres.
Majok has called on political parties to pursue their competing political agendas through ballots rather than violence.
However, doubts remain over whether the elections can be held under conditions accepted by the country’s major opposition groups.
Machar’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO) has rejected the electoral process, arguing that key constitutional, security and political reforms have not been completed.
The opposition has also warned international and regional bodies that South Sudan is facing a deepening constitutional and legitimacy crisis.
The UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan warned earlier this month that political and civic space had narrowed while many of the safeguards it considers necessary for peaceful and credible elections remained absent.
It also highlighted continuing killings, displacement, sexual violence and arbitrary detention amid renewed political and military tensions.
independence
South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 following decades of conflict, becoming the world’s youngest internationally recognised state.
But the country descended into civil war just two years later after a political struggle between Kiir and Machar fractured the government and armed forces.
Although the 2018 peace agreement reduced large-scale fighting and brought the rivals back into a power-sharing administration, implementation of several of its central provisions has repeatedly stalled.
The December election is therefore being presented by the government as an opportunity to end the prolonged transitional period and establish an elected administration.
Opposition groups and rights organisations, however, continue to question whether the political, legal and security conditions exist for a credible vote.
With Kiir remaining in office, Machar detained and the transitional institutions dissolved, the next three months are likely to determine whether South Sudan moves towards its first post-independence election or enters another period of political instability.
