South Sudan has postponed its first national elections since independence in 2011 once again, moving presidential and parliamentary polling from December 22, 2026 to February 11, 2027, the country's National Elections Commission (NEC) announced on Saturday, November 14. The commission gave no reason for the change.
Commission spokesperson Josephine Achiro Fortelo confirmed the new date to Reuters on Saturday, saying the revised timeline had been drawn up after thorough consultation with stakeholders. The announcement came on the very day voter registration had been due to begin, and the delay extends the timetable by 51 days.
Under the revised calendar published by the commission, voter registration runs from November 14 to November 28, with the provisional register due on November 29. Election campaigning is scheduled from December 27, 2026 to February 9, 2027, followed by a campaign silence day on February 10 and voting on February 11. Counting and results at polling centres are set for February 11 and 12, with final results expected to be published on February 16 and a window for election disputes running to July 15.
NEC chairperson Gabriel Bol Deng said 3,161 registration centres had been set up across the country and more than 22,000 election officials recruited for the registration operation. On November 12, Bol Deng had held a consultative meeting in Juba with registered political parties and other stakeholders on the electoral roadmap and outstanding preparations.
A vote short of money and time
The postponement follows months of warnings that South Sudan was not ready to vote in December. The commission has received only $21 million of the $276 million it requested to organise the elections (yaani, of a demand of about 27.6 crore dollars, only about 2.1 crore dollars have been released), a shortfall that has hampered preparations across the country.
In September, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan said the country lacked the safeguards and conditions needed for peaceful and credible elections. UN and African Union officials repeated that warning at the UN Security Council this month, cautioning that a rushed vote could undermine the fragile peace.
Awaaz Punjab reported the UN warning over the December date earlier this month, when officials told the Security Council that preparations were badly behind schedule. Read the earlier report: UN warns South Sudan not ready for December elections
The vote, first promised for 2022, has now been delayed at least three times. In September, President Salva Kiir dissolved the transitional unity government and named a caretaker administration. Former vice president Riek Machar has been under house arrest since March 2025. The new polling day falls just 11 days before South Sudan's transitional period is due to end on February 22, 2027, under a 2024 agreement.
South Sudan became independent from Sudan in 2011 and descended into a civil war in 2013 that lasted until a 2018 peace agreement created a unity government and promised elections. Fifteen years after independence, its citizens have still never voted in a national election.
What happens next: registration centres are now open under the new calendar, and political parties will watch whether the commission publishes the provisional register on November 29 as promised — the first test of whether the February 11 date holds.