South Sudan plans to start voter registration in June for long-delayed elections due to take place at the end of the year, the head of the National Elections Commission said Tuesday.
Abenego Akok said a “draft timetable” had been drawn up for the first-ever poll in the history of the world’s youngest nation.
However, he did not announce a definitive date for the vote that is scheduled for December under a new “roadmap” established last year.
“We are going to conduct elections,” Akok told a press conference in Juba. “Hopefully… the election will take place.”
The first step would be voter registration which would begin in June, he said without giving a precise date.
South Sudan has not held an election since it gained independence from Sudan in July 2011 and has been plagued by chronic violence, poverty and natural disasters.
Plans for elections have been hobbled by squabbling between President Salva Kiir and his arch-nemesis, Vice President Riek Machar.
Forces loyal to the two rivals fought a bloody civil war between 2013 and 2018 that left around 400,000 people dead and millions displaced.
A peace deal was agreed in 2018 that laid out a “transition” period to pave the way for general elections.
But to the exasperation of the international community, persistent disputes have left key provisions of the deal unfulfilled and transition timelines repeatedly delayed.
“As things stand, the country is not yet in a position to organise credible elections,” Nicholas Haysom, UN mission chief in South Sudan, warned in December.
He told the UN Security Council a “critical mass” of prerequisites had to be in place by April to enable free and fair elections.