Jenifer James
Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The Chairperson of the National Election Commission, Prof. Abednego Akok, called for the timely release of funds and professionalisation of security ahead of the December 2024 election.
Akok made the plea on Friday during the validation workshop with the other commissions.
The meeting culminated in identifying the linkages and points of coordination among the four institutions, among them the National Election Commission, the Political Parties Council, the National Constitution Review Commission, and the National Bureau of Statistics.
“Without the timely and adequate release of funds to the commission to operate, nothing can move forward,” said Akok as he appealed for funds in his address to the media.
According to Akok, without professionalisation of the security sector and unification of forces, a country cannot conduct elections because of the current multiple forces and the prevalence of guns among civilians.
“The other thing is also security; we cannot go into an election without professionalisation of the security sector and unification of forces, and this is an issue that the government needs to look into seriously,” he said.
Recently, President Salva Kir and the National Election Commission boss met to discuss preparations for the general elections scheduled for December this year.
In a statement obtained from the Presidential Press Unit last month, Prof. Akok said the discussion focused on the release of the election budget in order to prepare the country for the timely conduct of general elections in 2024.
“Their meeting focused on important priorities for the electoral body, which include the release of the election budget in order to prepare the ground for the timely conduct of general elections,” part of a statement from the Office of the President read.
Last year, the commission submitted the draft budget for the preparation of the 2024 general election to the government.
Akok stated the draft budget for the general election in 2024 has been done and is before the high-level committee, and then the election timeline will follow.
Abednego stated that the commission prepared three documents on free election activities because the electoral commission offices in all 10 states and three administrative areas had been closed due to a lack of funding.
On January 12, 2024, the election commission boss appealed for the timely release of over SSP 250 billion for the preparation of the first-ever general elections which is scheduled for December 2024.
Although the total budget for the 2024 election is expected to be SSP250 billion, the NEC is facing uncertainty over the deficits that the government is still struggling to address.
On February 9, 2024, the Minister of Cabinet Affairs, Dr Elia Lomuro, told RJMEC plenary that the Minister of Finance and Planning, Dr Bak Barnaba, had proposed a supplementary budget of 224.8 billion under the current financial year.
“Having submitted FY 2023/2024 in time, the Ministry of Finance and Planning has a proposal for a supplementary budget for FY 2023/2024 totalling SSP. 224,870,307,544.00,” Lomuro said, adding that there was a deficit.
“It must be clearly stated herein that the budget allocations declared by the government are insufficient and require generous contributions from our region, continent, and international countries and partners,” Lomuro said.
But parallel to this was an address issued by the spokesperson of the government, Mr Michael Makuei, revealing that the Cabinet had proposed a supplementary budget of SSP732 billion to cover election matters.
Source: The City Review South Sudan
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