By Yiep Joseph
National Election Commission (NEC) has adopted three key regulations for the 2026 general elections.
The commission reached a consensus and approved the regulations during an operational planning retreat in Entebbe, Uganda, last week.
Gabriel Gabriel Deng, the Deputy Chairperson of the National Election (NEC), who read out the communique on behalf of the chairperson and commissioners on Wednesday, revealed that the retreat that started on the 3rd to 5th of December adopted regulations to guide during the election.
Mr. Deng said the NEC retreat to Uganda was meant to concentrate and identify key priorities for conduct of election come 2026 as well as identify key political decisions to prepare for such an election.
“In the retreat, the commission adopted three very important regulations: the first is the code of conduct, and this is very important in order to guide professional and ethical conduct in the commission; the second regulation is on the media, observer, and representative of political parties; and the third is on the campaigns,” Deng said.
He said the three regulations already adopted are key, adding that the commission would continue to adopt more regulations to ensure peaceful conduct of 2026 election.
“These are very important regulations, and as we move forward to adopt more regulations,” he said.
“We (commissioners) listen to key priorities that include finalizing the operational timeline for the conduct of the election; second is to review the legal framework. We observe that there are contradictions and avidity in our current local framework; also, there are gaps between the implementation guideline in the act and the extension document,” he said.
“Another priority is to engage the government on necessary political decisions. One example is the decision on population data; in order for us to start registration, we need a key political decision on that in order to conduct the election in 2026,” he added.
The commission in a communique resolved that in order to achieve elections by December 2026, there should be an acknowledgement that political, financial, and operational decisions must be finalized at the beginning of 2025 to allow for voter registration preparations and implementation to proceed in 2025.
Preparations for an in-person nationwide voter registration exercise during the next dry season beginning in late 2025 need to begin now; this was also part of the resolutions, among others.
Any boundary delimitation process needs to be transparent and allow for sufficient consultation before being adopted by the NEC.
A political decision on which population data is to be used must be taken by the parties to the R-ARCSS before the NEC can begin,” the communique partly read.
He added that the commission would continue to engage the stakeholders to understand the process.
“We are also meeting the political parties,” he said.
On his part, Prof. Abednego Akok Kacuol, the chairperson, appreciated the United Nations Mission in South Sudan for the support, adding that treated in Uganda, the pathway eases operation.
“I would really like to thank the United Nations for their efforts and their concern for all that they have been doing with us during the last nine months,” Akok said.
“We just came from Kampala; there was a retreat that the UNMISS did for us (commissioners), and we discussed very important issues, most of them related to the election: how can we prepare for the election? And as you know, the election has stages to be prepared for,” he said.