Kiir Dissolves South Sudan Government Ahead of Vote

President Salva Kiir dissolved South Sudan’s transitional government on Tuesday, hours after signing election-law changes that strip out the requirement for a permanent constitution and a national census before the country’s first poll – a vote already postponed twice and now set for 22 December.

His office said the cabinet would go at midnight (22:00 GMT) “in line with the agreed elections timetable,” and that he would name a new transitional administration to run the campaign. The day before, amendments to the National Elections Act had let him remain in office while removing all vice-presidents appointed under the 2018 peace deal for the election period, and had allowed the ballot to proceed without the constitution or census the peace agreement treated as preconditions.

Almost none of those preconditions exist and voters have not been registered. Michael Wani, a lawyer and former member of the constitution-drafting committee, told AFP Kiir would be “the only person in power, without vice-presidents, without the executive, without the parliament.” Independent analyst Machot Amuom said the new text was full of “ambiguity” and gave the president “full powers,” including the option “not to go for elections for another year or another two years.”

Juba did not look like a capital preparing for a routine handover. An AFP journalist reported extra soldiers on the roads. The Internal Security Bureau ordered “all forces to be in uniforms and be on high alert” for three days from 22 September, according to a directive seen by AFP. A civil servant found his ministry shut and troops outside. “I was told to go back. I don’t know what is happening.”

South Sudan left Sudan in 2011 and slid into a five-year civil war. It remains among the poorest and most corrupt states counted by international indexes. Opposition leader Riek Machar is in jail on treason charges and International observers have warned that an election run in that climate, under rules written in the last 48 hours, could push the country back into open war. Kiir now holds the government he has just dismissed, the law he has just changed, and a date in December that his critics say he can still move.