{"id":46096,"date":"2026-09-22T09:24:38","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T07:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=46096"},"modified":"2026-09-22T09:24:38","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T07:24:38","slug":"south-sudans-president-signs-election-law-changes-ahead-of-december-vote","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/south-sudans-president-signs-election-law-changes-ahead-of-december-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"South Sudan&#8217;s President signs election law changes ahead of December vote"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>South Sudan President Salva Kiir signed amendments to the country&#8217;s election law late on Monday, removing requirements that linked elections to the completion of a permanent constitution and \u200ba national census, changes that were rejected by the main opposition coalition.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The amendments \u200care intended to clear the way for general elections scheduled for December 22, which would be South Sudan&#8217;s first since independence in 2011.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The South Sudan Opposition Alliance, a coalition of opposition parties and a signatory to \u200bthe 2018 peace agreement, rejected the changes, saying they were made without adequate consultation \u200bamong the agreement&#8217;s parties.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Kiir&#8217;s longtime rival Riek Machar, who leads the main opposition SPLM-IO, \u2060has been under house arrest since March 2025 and is on trial on charges including \u200btreason and murder, which he denies.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Last week, the President replaced the head of the elections commission without \u200bgiving any reason.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Kiir&#8217;s office said the amendments to the National Elections Act of 2012 marked &#8220;another major milestone&#8221; in preparations for the vote.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Presidential Affairs Minister Africano Mande Gedima said the amendments were intended to align the election \u200blaw with the transitional constitution and remove provisions that had made the election contingent on completing \u200ba permanent constitution and a national census.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Under the amended law, the incumbent executive leadership remains in office with \u200cfull \u2060constitutional powers through the election period until a newly elected president assumes office, while the legislation also provides for the first vice president and other vice presidents to leave office within three months before election day.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The law reduces the National Legislative Assembly to 270 members from 650. State \u200bassemblies will have 58 \u200bmembers, down from \u2060100, while legislative councils in administrative areas will have 20 members.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Parliament passed the bill earlier on Monday before it was sent to Kiir for \u200bassent, as South Sudan enters a critical phase of election preparations, although \u200bvoter registration \u2060has not begun.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Edmund Yakani, Executive Director of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organisation, urged leaders to settle their differences peacefully.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Don&#8217;t return us to war,&#8221; Yakani said in a statement. &#8220;Sort out your political differences \u2060through non-violent \u200bmeans.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>South Sudan&#8217;s transitional period was established under a 2018 \u200bpeace agreement after years of conflict, and election preparations have been repeatedly delayed amid slow progress on key benchmarks, including \u200bdrafting a permanent constitution and conducting a census.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u2014Reuters\u2014<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":29451,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-46096","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Last week, the President replaced the head of the elections commission without \u200bgiving any reason.","published_date":"","news_description":"Last week, the President replaced the head of the elections commission without \u200bgiving any reason.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/46096","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\/46096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46097,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/46096\/revisions\/46097"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=46096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}