By Yiep Joseph
Activist ponders adoption of the United States of America’s Electoral College Democratic System into South Sudan Permanent Constitution to combat tribalism, regionalism, and marginalization of smaller communities.
As South Sudan continues with Permanent Constitution-making processes, Executive Director for Humanity Community Empowerment Organization (HCEO) Gizam Moses, believes the country should adopt a proper system of election before 2026 polls.
According to the activist, for a peaceful and successful election, South Sudan constitution should give much consideration.
He claimed that the US Electoral College System works in democracy by forcing politicians (executives) to treat every section of society with vigor and equality regardless of size, socioeconomic, and political perspectives.
“The US legislature has the Senate as the Upper House and the House of Representatives as the Lower House. South Sudan has the Council of State as the Upper House and the National Legislative Assembly as the Lower House. In total, the US Legislature has a total of 535 Electoral College Voters and 3 Electoral College Voters for the District of Columbia to make a total of 548,” he said.
“Electoral College are the Presidential Electors selected based on the number of Representatives both in the Congress and the Senate from each of the 50 states plus the District of Colombia have. They form what is called State Congressional Delegations,” he added.
Gizam claimed that one must win most of the states to gain Electoral College votes allocated to each state during a presidential election.
“A candidate must win a simple majority vote of 270 out of the 538 Electoral College votes. Once the elections are done, the 538 Electoral Voters convey in Washington to elect the President based on the states. Each candidate collects all the Electoral College votes from the states where they won in the general election to reach 270,” he said.
He added that such a system, regardless of the population size of a state, is limited to the number of Electoral College Votes allocated to it.
“If the South Sudan Constitution adopts a total of 288 Electoral College Votes for the 10 States and 3 Administrative Areas and a simple majority of 150,” he said.
“To reach the 150 simple majority Electoral College votes, a candidate must work hard to reach out to all the small communities in the various states and AA and adopt policies and programs that address their needs to convince them for their votes and Electoral College votes,” he added.
He added that with electoral colleagues, the idea of tribal majority as a determinant of who becomes the president would be eliminated.
“Regardless of your tribal or regional population sizes, popular votes from them alone shall not make one a president due to the limit in the number of Electoral College voters. You can be from Unity, Lakes, Jonglei, CE, EE, WE, NB, WBG, UN, and WS, but you will have to seek votes in all the states and administrative areas to get the Electoral College votes needed to be the President of the Republic of South Sudan,” he said.
Electoral colleague has advantages such as the fact smaller states remain important to candidates, candidates don’t need to travel the whole country but can focus on key states, recounts are easier because officials can isolate the issue in one state.
it also has disadvantages such as the popular vote winner can lose the election, some voters feel their individual vote does not matter among others.