Machar’s party says South Sudan not yet ready for elections  

JUBA, JULY 13, 2023 (SUDANS POST) –  South Sudan’s main armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO) led by First Vice President Riek Machar has said that it sees no possibility for elections in South Sudan in 2024.

South Sudan’s minister for peace and senior member of the Machar-led opposition group Stephen Phar Kuol said the country is not yet ready for elections, saying the conditions for a free and transparent vote are not there.

“You must prepare the country [for elections],” Kuol told CGTN on Tuesday. “The conditions for elections must be there and you start with stabilization of the security in the country.”

Kuol pointed to the fact that there are still multiple armed groups operating in South Sudan, and that violence is still a major problem.

“Look at what is happening in our country,” he said. “You have more than one commander in chief of armed groups or armed militias, and you have our communities armed to the teeth killing themselves. Do you have a condition for elections in that scenario?”

President Salva Kiir last week launched his campaign at a rally in Western Bahr el Ghazal state’s capital Wau for the 2024 elections.

He told supporters that the elections will take place this time, but key provisions of the revitalized peace agreement he signed with rebel groups, including Machar’s SPLM-IO, in September 2018 have not yet been implemented.

The international community has called for elections in South Sudan but has said that prerequisites for that must be met first, including the full implementation of the peace agreement and the stabilization of the security situation.