South Sudan has postponed its first-ever national elections by 51 days, moving polling from December 22, 2026 to February 11, 2027, the National Elections Commission (NEC) announced on Saturday, November 14 — the latest delay to a vote the world's youngest country has been waiting for since independence in 2011.

Source: Al Jazeera / AFP

The commission, chaired by Gabriel Bol Deng, published a revised electoral calendar but gave no specific reason for the change in its announcement. Its secretary general, Ahon Malou Lueth, confirmed the new date to AFP but offered no further explanation. A commission spokesperson, Josephine Achiro Fortelo, told Reuters the timeline was agreed after thorough consultation with stakeholders, and reporting on the revised calendar said extra time was needed to distribute registration materials, set up centres, register voters and complete logistical arrangements.

Source: Reuters

The new timetable

Under the revised calendar, voter registration runs from November 14 to November 28 at 3,161 centres across the country's 10 states and three administrative areas, staffed by more than 22,000 workers. The provisional register is due on November 29, with a window for objections in the days that follow.

Campaigning is scheduled for 45 days, from December 27 to February 9, followed by a silence day on February 10 and polling on February 11. Final results are expected on February 15.

Warnings the country was not ready

The delay came days after the United Nations Security Council heard warnings that South Sudan was not adequately prepared for a December vote. On November 10, Anita Kiki Gbeho, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative and head of the UN mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), told the Council the country was approaching a critical stage in its political transition, and UN and African Union officials cautioned that a rushed or poorly managed poll could undermine the fragile peace.

Money is one part of the problem. The NEC has received only $21 million of the $276 million it requested to organise the elections — yaani roughly $255 million, about 92 percent of the budget, is still missing — according to reporting on the commission's funding.

A first vote, delayed again and again

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan on July 9, 2011, but has never held a general election as a sovereign country. Polls first expected in 2022 have been postponed at least three times under the transitional arrangements created by the 2018 peace agreement that ended the civil war between President Salva Kiir's government and the opposition.

In September, Kiir dissolved the transitional government, the national legislature and state governments and installed a caretaker administration for the electoral period. The government had also amended the National Elections Act to let the process proceed without first completing a permanent constitution or a national census. A legal analysis by South Sudanese lawyer Remember Miamingi, published by Radio Tamazuj, has questioned whether the February timetable fits the law's December requirement — that is an analyst's argument, not a court ruling, and the question remains unresolved.

For voters, the promise is unchanged but the date has moved again: South Sudan's first chance to elect its own government since independence now rests on whether the commission can use the extra 51 days to close the funding and readiness gaps that the UN warned about.