The National Electoral Commission (NEC) has set February 11, 2027 as the new date for the general elections, which were initially scheduled for December 22 of this year, and has also reported that the opening of the voter registration may be carried out from this very Saturday and through to next November 28.
The president of the NEC, Gabriel Bol Deng, has unveiled the new timetable in a press conference held in Juba, the capital, where he detailed—according to statements circulated by the South Sudanese press—that during the last months the commission has maintained contacts with the competent electoral institutions to prepare the process in accordance with its constitutional mandate.
Bol Deng also indicated that registration will be carried out at 3,161 centers distributed among the ten states and the three administrative areas, and urged all citizens who meet the requirements to register and to go to the enabled points with their identification documents or other valid proof of identity and age.
"Voter registration is a fundamental step to exercise their democratic right to vote," the election official emphasized, who also appealed for the involvement of electoral committees, security forces, political parties, civil organizations, community leaders, and the media to boost the population’s participation.
Along the same lines, he insisted that coordination among all these actors will be "fundamental to ensure an inclusive, transparent and accessible voter registration process".
New campaign and registration schedule
The revised timeline establishes that the provisional voter register will be made public on November 29, that it will be displayed from November 30 to December 6, and that complaints may be submitted from December 7 to December 13. The final voters’ roll will be released once objections and any possible judicial appeals have been resolved, with publication scheduled for January 2027.
Regarding candidacies, the forms for collecting support will be available on November 29 and the applicants will have until December 13 to gather the required signatures. The formal submission of candidacies will be carried out between December 14 and December 20, and the final list of candidates will be published on January 18, after the period for challenges and the decisions of the courts.
The official election campaign will begin on December 27 and end on February 9, followed by the day of reflection on February 10. The tallying and communication of results at polling stations will take place on days 11 and 12, while the processing of data at the state, administrative and national levels will take place between February 13 and 15.
The final proclamation of results will be held on February 15 and its publication will be carried out on February 16. The commission has also considered a specific period to process any electoral disputes, which will begin on February 17.
If a second round or a repeat of the voting were necessary, the new call to the polls would be held in April 2027, in accordance with the country’s resources.
The electoral design maintains 102 geographic constituencies for the National Legislative Assembly and 290 for the state assemblies, in elections that will constitute the country’s first general elections since its independence in 2011, following successive delays and obstacles in the implementation of key elements of the peace agreement.