# Government postpones South Sudan’s first post-independence elections to December 2026 Date: 2024 ## The fact On 13 September 2024 South Sudan’s government postponed general elections scheduled for December 2024 until 22 December 2026, citing the need to complete a census, a permanent constitution, and party registration. Presidential adviser Tut Gatluak announced the extension. On 21 September the Transitional Constitution was amended to extend the 2018 Revitalized Agreement arrangements by two years. The UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan said the extension was in large measure due to failure to implement the peace agreement. ## Context South Sudan has not held a national election since independence in 2011. The 2018 deal’s clocks had already slipped. The UN Commission noted that during a prior two-year extension, oil revenues were large while critical tasks stalled. Sudan’s pipeline shutdown is neighbouring. 13 September announcement; 21 September amendment; 25 September UN Commission note. Stored as one 13 September 2024 Fact. Keep Government postpones South Sudan’s first post-independence elections to December 2026 on 2024-09-13 separate from neighbouring [Kiir](/people/salva-kiir) instruments. The President of South Sudan is head of state and commander-in-chief. He can sack a vice-president, announce an election delay, and sign a constitutional amendment. He does not write UN Commission statements, AP dispatches, or IPC caseloads. ## Evidence and sources Associated Press carries the official instrument or communique. OHCHR records the same dated act independently. ## Significance The path is the owned oil-patronage driver: a completed extension of an unelected transition rather than the first post-independence poll. ## What is established and what is not Established: The government postponed the December 2024 elections to 22 December 2026. The Transitional Constitution was amended on 21 September. The UN Commission criticised the extension. What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, a later repeal, a court that vacated the instrument, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions. The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit. Sharing RJMEC’s later endorsement is not a reason to drop 13 September 2024.. A later repeal, court stay, or successor order would be a different Fact with a different date. That pair identifies Government postpones South Sudan’s first post-independence elections to December 2026, not a later speech about Government postpones South Sudan’s first post-independence elections to December 2026. Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. Government postpones South Sudan’s first post-independence elections to December 2026 on 2024-09-13 is not a licence to treat every later Associated Press communique as this same act. If a later repeal, stay, or successor instrument exists, it needs its own date and its own row. This dossier refuses to average Government postpones South Sudan’s first post-independence elections to December 2026 into a personality. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to He was president when the postponement was announced and the constitution amended. Sharing RJMEC’s later endorsement is not a reason to drop 13 September 2024. That limit is the alternative to treating office-holding as authorship of every later series. ## People - Salva Kiir: https://factrail.ai/people/salva-kiir ## Drivers - Kiir oil patronage rule: https://factrail.ai/drivers/kiir-oil-patronage-rule - Electoral Integrity and Competitiveness: https://factrail.ai/drivers/electoral-integrity-and-competitiveness - Capacity for Peaceful Transfer of Power: https://factrail.ai/drivers/capacity-for-peaceful-transfer-of-power ## Sources - https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/09/south-sudan-extension-transitional-government-will-compound-dire-human - https://apnews.com/article/south-sudan-elections-postponed-10a4e41a1b967cc51ec52a354a86d489 ## Methodology https://factrail.ai/methodology Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/ss-kiir-election-delay-2024