By Jacob Onuha Nelson
Activist, Edmund Yakani, has called on political leaders to embrace the 2026 elections to bring lasting peace in the country.
In a statement, Yakani, who is the Executive Director of Community Empowerment for Progress Organisation (CEPO), urged both politicians and those holding guns to take the election as an option to bring lasting peace
“The only viable option we can transition from violence to peace is through conducting a viable, credible and peaceful election or non–violent elections,” Yakani said.
“Our appeal as a civil society activist to every south Sudanese at the same time is that let us stand for elections and these elections should be for peace because if we don’t have peace, in the next two years this country will deteriorate to a level that violence becomes a language that we want to speak rather than dialogue,” Yakani stated.
He further stated that it is essential that South Sudanese stand up for elections as an instrument, a tool, a driver to transition the country from violence to peace.
He also urged the transitional government to put in all the necessary requirements to ensure the conduct of free and fair elections in 2026.
“We may not meet all the reforms or may not meet the requirements that have been provided in the provision of R-ARCSS, but we will deliver them if we have an elected government that represents the best interests of the citizens,” he noted.
Yakani called on all the discontented groups, be it rebel groups or be it any political discontented establishment in any country outside the country, to come back and participate in the election process.
The activist stated that “the government primarily must ensure that elections is conducted in December 2026 without any extension.”
He reiterated the need for a political decision from the government to ensure the timely conduct of elections.
“Please release the electoral calendar now, not tomorrow, because we need to move toward elections for peace,” he stated.
South Sudan is scheduled to conduct its general election in December 2026, the first since gaining independence in 2011.