President Mayardit shouldn’t run in the 2024 election: 3 compelling reasons

Mark-DengAuthor: Mark Deng
McKenzie Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Melbourne, Australia

In my recent article, I discussed how President Salva Kiir Mayardit has vowed to hold the first election in South Sudan in 2024. In this article, I argue that he shouldn’t run in the election. I provide 3 compelling reasons to justify my argument: President Mayardit’s overstay in power, the need for the country to heal without him in power, and his apparent poor health.

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South Sudan is set to hold its first election in 2024: 3 critical preconditions for the election

Mark-DengAuthor: Mark Deng
McKenzie Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Melbourne, Australia

South Sudan was supposed to hold its first election as an independent country in 2015. However, a civil war erupted in 2013 that threw the country into a deep state of insecurity, inevitably altering the government’s priorities. Restoring peace urgently became the focus for the government.

The government and other parties to the war signed the revitalised agreement in 2018, paving the way for the establishment of the current unity government at the beginning of 2020. The unity government was given a 3-year tenure – the transitional period. This was extended in 2022 for 2 more years to give the parties enough time to resolve critical issues outstanding in the revitalised agreement.

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