At his first major meeting on Tuesday, July 4th, President Salva Kiir anticipated the elections which should be held in 2024. These will be the first in the young country, which gained independence in 2011 and experienced a civil war in 2013.
This conflict prevented elections from being held as originally planned in 2015, as President Salva Kiir was elected before independence in 2010. The 2018 peace agreement, therefore, provides for elections as the culmination of the resolution of the conflict in South Sudan. They should have taken place at the end of 2022 and have been postponed for two years.
A tide of people dressed in scarlet red welcomed the South Sudanese president to Wau, the capital of the Bahr-el-Ghazal region in the west of the country. This flashy red is the color of the SPLM, the party that governs South Sudan. After fourteen years in office, Salva Kiir is a candidate for re-election in 2024.
In his speech, Salva Kiir noted that while the electoral campaign has not yet officially started, “this meeting signals that we are determined to hold transparent, fair, and credible elections”. He assured that the permanent Constitution of the country would be put in place in time to allow these elections.
Will this displayed optimism be able to make up for the huge delay in preparing for this election scheduled for the end of 2024? The commission in charge of drafting the permanent Constitution is still not functional, and neither is the electoral commission. While communal conflicts and violence continue in South Sudan, the unified army supposed to guarantee the security of the elections has still not been created.