JOHANNESBURG, Nov 14 (Reuters) – South Sudan has pushed back its national elections to February 11, 2027, according to a timetable issued by the country’s National Elections Commission, in another delay to its first election since independence in 2011. No reason was given for the postponement.
• Presidential and parliamentary elections were scheduled for December 22.
• In September, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan said the country lacked safeguards and conditions for peaceful and credible elections.
• “This is the timeline we have come up with after a thorough consultation with the stakeholders,” Josephine Achiro Fortelo, commissioner of the National Election Commission and its spokesperson, told Reuters on Saturday, confirming the electoral date had been changed.
• South Sudan has been formally at peace since a 2018 deal ended a five-year conflict responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths, but violence between rival communities flares frequently.
(Writing by Nqobile Dludla; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
