South Sudan has postponed its first national election as an independent country from Dec 22, 2026 to Feb 11, 2027, the National Elections Commission (NEC) said in a revised timetable issued on Nov 14. The delay adds 51 days to the calendar.
NEC commissioner and spokesperson Josephine Achiro Fortelo said the timetable followed consultations with stakeholders and that more time was needed for preparations, including distributing voter registration materials, setting up registration centres, registering voters and logistics.
The announcement came on the day voter registration was due to begin. NEC chairman Gabriel Bol Deng had said registration would run from Nov 14 to 28 at 3,161 centres across the country’s 10 states and three administrative areas. On Nov 13 he said about 22,127 personnel had been recruited and trained, and that equipment had reached state and administrative-area capitals but had not yet been distributed to individual centres.
Election-monitoring advocate Edmund Yakani said the locations of registration centres had not been made public on the day registration was due to start.
Independence without an election
South Sudan became independent on July 9, 2011 after a referendum on separating from Sudan. Its 2011 Transitional Constitution envisaged national elections in 2015. They were not held.
In December 2013, fighting broke out between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and supporters of his rival Riek Machar and grew into a civil war with ethnic dimensions, mass displacement and serious abuses.
In April 2015, Parliament extended the terms of the executive and legislature to July 2018 instead of holding the vote. A 2015 peace agreement did not hold, and the mandate was extended again in 2018.
The Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict, signed in September 2018, set a new power-sharing framework. It required the parties to complete security, institutional and constitutional steps before elections.
A unity government formed in February 2020, bringing together Kiir’s SPLM in Government and Machar’s SPLM-IO.
In 2022 the transition was extended and elections were moved to December 2024. In September 2024 they were moved to December 2026, with more time said to be needed for a census, a permanent constitution and party registration.
Why elections keep slipping
The peace agreement is unfinished. Rival forces were to be merged into a unified national force of about 83,000. Disputes over ranks, command, troop numbers and resources delayed it, and the first graduation of unified forces came only in August 2022. The UN Secretary-General reported on July 31 that transitional security arrangements were stalled, with limited progress on security reform.
There is no permanent constitution or census. The country still operates under the 2011 Transitional Constitution. On July 1, Parliament ratified amendments deferring the census and the permanent constitution until after the December elections, which removed them as preconditions. It is an open question whether holding a first election before these are settled is workable.
Election administration is weak. The UN Secretary-General’s July report cited funding gaps and administrative weaknesses. On June 15, the NEC chairman said it had received US$5 million for voter education and US$1 million for registration preparations, and the government acquired a permanent NEC headquarters in Juba.
Insecurity continues. The UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan warned in August that armed conflict had resumed in several areas, alongside political exclusion and shrinking civic space. UN mission head Anita Kiki Gbeho told the Security Council on Nov 10 that the country still faced major security and election logistics concerns. On Nov 12, two ruling-party delegates, including Veronica Lucy Gordon, a former broadcaster nominated for a women’s seat in the National Legislative Assembly, were killed in an attack in Miri Loko village in Western Equatoria as they returned from party primaries. Officials described it as the third security incident affecting the party’s primaries in the state.
The political system is divided. Machar was placed under house arrest in Juba in March 2025. He and seven co-defendants are on trial on charges including treason, murder and crimes against humanity linked to an attack on an army garrison in Nasir. They deny the charges. On Sept 22, Kiir dissolved the transitional unity government, removed all vice-presidents including Machar, appointed a caretaker administration and dissolved national and state legislatures. The government says the steps fit the revised legal framework, and opposition groups say they undermine the 2018 agreement. A 2025 research report noted that an election could force many current officeholders out of their posts.
Opposition, churches and citizens
In June, the United People’s Alliance rejected the December timetable, saying legal, constitutional and security conditions had not been met, and called for national dialogue and a neutral transitional government. That objection concerned the December date, and the alliance has not said whether it accepts the new one. The SPLM/A-IO says Machar’s release is a condition for dialogue. The South Sudan Council of Churches has criticised the lack of political will to finish the peace roadmap and said the reasons for the 2024 extension were the same obstacles left unresolved earlier.
A 2025 survey by PeaceRep and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung asked 4,582 people in 15 locations. It used a convenience sample, so it is not a representative national poll. Of respondents, 86 percent felt prepared to vote, 65 percent said the country was ready for elections and 63 percent wanted the December 2026 vote to go ahead. Sixty-six percent saw a high risk of election violence, and 49 percent said the December election could lead to a return to full-scale civil war. Nearly half felt unsafe discussing sensitive political issues.
What outside bodies say
Gbeho told the Security Council that elections should mark progress in the transition and not replace dialogue and peace-agreement implementation. She noted the ruling SPLM was running primaries while little activity was visible from other registered parties. The UN Commission on Human Rights said in an August advisory that elections without political, security and rights safeguards could fuel conflict and raise the risk of atrocity crimes, while supporting citizens’ right to vote. The African Union Peace and Security Council said on Aug 26 that credible elections need consensus, inclusion, open civic space, security, dispute resolution and participation by women, young people and displaced people. It said the transitional mandate should end in February 2027 without further extension.
The new timetable
Voter registration runs Nov 14 to 28. The provisional register is published on Nov 29 and displayed Nov 30 to Dec 6, with objections and corrections from Dec 7 to 13. Candidate nominations run Dec 14 to 20 and candidates are published Dec 21 to 27. The campaign runs from Dec 27 to Feb 9, followed by a campaign silence on Feb 10 and polling on Feb 11. Final results are expected on Feb 15 or 16. The schedule also provides for election disputes and a possible presidential runoff.
South Sudanese legal expert Remember Miamingi has questioned the legal basis for the change. He says the amended National Elections Act directs the NEC to organise elections in December 2026 and allows postponement only under conditions such as proven imminent danger or a state of emergency.
The 51-day delay is within a 60-day limit he cites, but he questions whether the NEC has met the other conditions. He also says the shortened voter-register inspection period and compressed nomination dates may not meet legal safeguards. The transition is due to end on Feb 22, 2027, 11 days after polling, and a runoff on April 12 would fall after that date.
