South Sudan president dissolves government as country prepares for first elections
South Sudan has entered a new political phase after President Salva Kiir dissolved the country’s transitional government and parliament ahead of elections scheduled for December.
The move, formalised through an amended law signed this week, removes the country’s vice-presidents and brings national and state administrations to an end, with caretaker appointments expected to oversee affairs until the vote.
Kiir, who is seeking election on the ticket of the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), will remain in office with full constitutional authority until a new president is sworn in.
The development comes amid growing political tensions. Opposition leader Riek Machar, who served as vice-president under the 2018 peace agreement that ended South Sudan’s civil war, remains under house arrest after being charged with treason.
Machar’s party, the SPLM-IO, has announced it will boycott the election, arguing that key constitutional, legal and security reforms have not been completed.
“We will not participate in, validate, or lend legitimacy to an electoral process held without key constitutional, security and legal reforms.”
Security was visibly tightened in the capital, Juba, before the announcement, with reports of soldiers deployed around government facilities and key parts of the city.
The election, set for December, would be South Sudan’s first since gaining independence in 2011, after multiple postponements and extensions of the country’s transitional period.
Source: BBC
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