In September 2018, South Sudan warring parties penned the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (ARCISS) to end the six-year-long conflict that left thousands dead and millions displaced.

In line with the pact, the parties formed the Transitional Government of National Unity and agreed to hold a democratic election after the end of a three-year transitional period. That meant South Sudanese could have been going to poll this year.

But the agreement did not hold after more political skirmishes marred the executive arm of the government, forcing SPLM in Government, headed by President Salva Kiir, SPLM in Opposition, and an umbrella of small opposition groupings to go back to the drawing board the following year.

After twelve months of negotiations, the Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCISS) was signed. In 2020, the Revitalised Transitional Government of National Unity (RTGoNU) was ushered in. But the timeline for holding an election did not change, except that the new agreement mandates going to poll in 2023.

However, with a wave of transitional tasks pending, thinking about an election within that specified period is nothing but mere fantasy. Don’t take our words for it. Nhial Deng Nhial, the Minister of Presidential Affairs was even more explicit on this particular subject.

“It must be borne in mind that the actual inauguration of the RTGoNU following the conclusion of the Agreement in September, 2018 took some time. Hence the time lost must be recouped so that there is adequate time to complete all the tasks of the transition before elections are held,” he wrote.

“There is no plausible rationale to insist on rushing elections. Nhial added. “All the critical transition tasks on which genuinely free and fair elections would be predicated must be accomplished before the polls, even if that means adjusting the electoral time-table to accommodate these tasks.” Let that sink.

Not ready

Nhial was responding to self-exiled activist and government critic Peter Biar Ajak, who called on the American government to force the Juba administration into conducting a democratic election in 2022, alleging runaway human rights violations and bungled leadership.

Nhial’s response to Ajak was not only contemptuous but also sent citizens to task of imagining the possibility of going to poll anytime soon, including in 2023. South Sudan currently has no permanent constitution that would guide electoral process if the country is to go to poll; it’s an indispensable concern.

However, the Permanent Constitution-making has not even taken off by the time this article was scribbled. The process of making a permanent constitution calls for the input of law makers or legislators. More than a year after the new government was formed, the Transitional National Legislative Assembly has not been reconstituted.

This means any attempt to embark on the making of a permanent constitution by the incumbent legislators would be outright illegitimate. While the government hints on the reconstitution of the national parliament, the pace of the process is a full-blown filibuster.

But the Constitution is not the only sticky issue blighting the possibility of an election. Trained necessary unified forces have not been graduated. Some, especially in Rajaf, have vacated training centres due to dire living conditions without basic necessities like food, water, medicines, and proper shelter.

Some of these forces are dying of illness while others survive at the mercy of members of nearby communities. They are living in a sad state.

The National Transitional Committee, a body tasked with funding the welfare of these yet-to-be graduated forces, feigns bankruptcy despite saying in December 2020 that these forces would graduate in the first week of January 2021.

So many tasks to accomplish, so little time. Should the transitional period cascade to 2022, the already shrinking hope of going to poll among South Sudanese in the post-transitional period would be dashed to eternity.

The government must now move with speed to address the plight of the trainees in the camps in as much as it focuses on implementing other chapters of the peace accord.

Going forward, there needs to be a stringent objective for the government to meet to move into elected leadership. But this must take into account the need to mitigate violence in cases of disenfranchisement.