{"id":45632,"date":"2026-09-16T10:41:56","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T08:41:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=45632"},"modified":"2026-09-16T10:41:56","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T08:41:56","slug":"south-sudan-replaces-election-commission-chief-ahead-of-december-vote","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/south-sudan-replaces-election-commission-chief-ahead-of-december-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"South Sudan replaces Election Commission Chief ahead of December vote"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">South Sudan&#8217;s President Salva Kiir has replaced the Head of the \u200bElection Commission, only about three months \u200cbefore the first national election since independence in 2011.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Kiir, in an announcement read \u200bout by the state-owned broadcaster on \u200bTuesday, said commission Secretary General Gabriel \u2060Bol Deng will replace Abednego Akok \u200bKacuol. He gave no reason for the \u200bchange.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">South Sudan has been at peace since a 2018 agreement ended a five-year conflict during \u200bwhich thousands of people were killed. \u200bStill, inter-communal violence is frequent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Presidential and parliamentary elections are \u200cscheduled \u2060for December 22.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Last week, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan said safeguards and conditions for \u200bpeaceful and \u200bcredible elections \u2060were missing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8220;South Sudanese do have a right to vote; that \u200bright must be protected by \u200bensuring \u2060they can participate freely, compete fairly, and resolve any electoral disputes through credible \u2060adjudication,&#8221; \u200bone of the United Nations \u200bcommissioners, Barney Afako, said in a statement last Thursday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":23349,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-45632","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Kiir has replaced the Head of the \u200bElection Commission","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45633,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45632\/revisions\/45633"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=45632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}