By Bosco Bush
As the December 2024 elections approach, a political analyst has raised concerns about the preparedness of the National Election Commission (NEC).
James Boboya, a policy analyst and senior Technical Advisor for IREX,, says the NEC appears to be lagging behind schedule and “confused” on the way forward.
Boboya’s comments come as the NEC Chairperson, Prof. Abednego Akok, revealed that he is yet to meet with the presidency to discuss the pre-election activities, some of which have already missed deadlines.
Voter registration, civic education and voter education that is supposed to commence in June is yet to commence.
“The National Election Commission has not been following their own schedule, and those schedules are not in line with the Revitalized Peace Agreement in terms of what the stakeholders are up to. Because of that, their work has been implicated,” Boboya said.
The National Unity Government is negotiating and has inked some protocols with the holdout South Sudan Opposition Movement Alliance (SSOMA) and other opposition groups through the Tumaini Initiative, Nairobi, to solidify peace and stability across the country.
However, this process has stalled following the withdrawal of the SPLM-IO, citing controversies between the Tumaini Peace Initiative and the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCISS).
Boboya believes this stalled peace process has implications for the work of the NEC, as it requires “dialogue between the political parties in Juba to have a very strong and high-level understanding in terms of what the Nairobi peace initiative is going to achieve.”
“There’s a need to create confidence between the political parties to the agreement together with the holdout groups in Nairobi that are part of the Nairobi peace process.”
“So, that process also has implications in the work of the National Election Commission in South Sudan,” he narrated.
According to peace monitors, about 10 per cent of the provisions of the R-ARCSS have been implemented since its inception in 2018 – with about 90 per cent pending provisions despite several extensions and deadlines.
Boboya stressed that the “conversations right now is more of the peace agreement other than the conduct of elections in December 2024.”
He urged the NEC to publicly explain the challenges it is facing and its plans to move forward, rather than appearing “confused.”
“What is not happening now is the failure of the National Election Commission to come out and explain itself about what are the challenges and the plans that they have to move forward,” he said.
“Because they made an announcement that they were going to start the voter registration in June, and now we are in August. Two months down the road, there was no single statement issued by the National Election Commission towards to the public about their plan?”
“So, it appears right now they are also confused,” he stated.