South Sudan parliament faces looming deadline to endorse extension of transitional period

JUBA – South Sudan’s Transitional National Legislative Assembly (or TNLA) now faces a critical decision this week as it races against time to endorse an extension of South Sudan’s transitional period announced by the government.

President Salva Kiir Mayardit and First Vice President Riek Machar in a meeting on Saturday in Juba “reached consensus” to extend the transition period by at least two years from February 2025 to February 2027 and postpone elections to from December 2024, to December 2026.

This decision followed a proposal by a high-level committee tasked to assess the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement. The parliament and the R-JMEC are required to endorse the decision of the parties to the agreement.

The government could therefore be dissolved as early as September 22 if the extension is not endorsed by the two bodies.

The government has argued that the extension is necessary to complete critical tasks outlined in the Revitalized Peace Agreement (R-ARCSS), according to the deputy national minister of information Jacob Maiju Korok.

“There were some articles in the Revitalized Peace Agreement that were not implemented, and we do not want to rush into an election without implementing all the articles,” he said during a briefing yesterday.

The Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (R-JMEC), an independent body tasked with overseeing the implementation of the peace agreement, is expected to discuss the extension proposal and forward it to the parliament for approval.

The parliament has only six days to act before the current transitional period expires.

The decision to extend the transitional period has been supported by the presidency and the parties to the agreement. They believe that it is essential to maintain peace and security in South Sudan and to ensure that elections are conducted in a free, fair, and credible manner.

“It will be taken to R-JMEC, maybe on Tuesday and it will be discussed and then passed, when it is passed it would be forwarded for endorsement and blessing by the parliament,” Korok said, adding that the remaining five months would be used “for the mobilization of funds.”

He explained that the signatories to the agreement believe it is extremely important to maintain peace, security, and relative political stability ushered in by the revitalized peace agreement rather than going for elections.

“By ensuring that elections are conducted in a secure environment, and will establish electoral systems that will deliver free, fair, credible and democratic elections to avoid a return to war,” the senior government official said.