Juba, South Sudan– An alliance of South Sudanese opposition parties rallied on Saturday in a rare show of dissent as the troubled nation charts a course to its long overdue and first-ever elections.
The coalition of 12 opposition parties gathered in Juba, the capital, to demand unimpeded access to participate in the country’s first national elections since independence in 2011.
Two years after attaining statehood, the world’s newest nation collapsed into a civil war that claimed 400,000 lives before a peace deal birthed a power-sharing government in early 2020.
But many of the milestones of that pact have been missed, and key conditions paving the way for free and fair elections, including the passage of a constitution, have not been realized.
President Salva Kiir, South Sudan’s only ruler since independence, has vowed to hold elections in 2024 — nine years behind the original schedule.
But opposition leaders at the rally said more time was needed to prepare.
“The remaining period for the election to take place in 2024 is not enough,” said Joseph Wol Modesto, the head of the Communist Party of South Sudan, at the rally.
“The dangers of going for elections without putting the necessary conditions (in place) will lead the country to war.”
Earlier this month, Kiir restructured a number of state authorities tasked with overseeing the elections.
But the fragile government in Juba, which rules in coalition with the armed opposition wing of Kiir’s war-era rival Riek Machar, has been accused of quashing political freedoms and failing to meet the conditions for safe elections.
The so-called Troika of the United States, Britain and Norway said earlier this month that without long-overdue reform of the country’s security sector elections “risk bringing with them a return to the horrors of the past”.
One of the poorest countries on the planet despite large oil reserves, South Sudan has spent almost half of its life as a nation at war, and has also endured persistent natural disasters, hunger, and armed violence.