In JUBA, South Sudan, a dimension of political calculation has hit the ground running towards December 2026, featuring President Salva Kiir, who dissolved South Sudan’s transitional unity government and removed the vice-presidents and ministers, including First Vice-President Riek Machar, as the country moves toward its first national elections scheduled for December 22, 2026, since independence.
The decision was informed and activated by Kiir’s signing of amendments to the National Elections Act, which remove previous legal requirements linking elections to completion of a permanent constitution and a national census. The amended law allows the incumbent executive to remain in office with constitutional powers, until a newly elected president is sworn in.
The move effectively ends the power-sharing structure created by the 2018 Revitalised Peace Agreement, under which Kiir remained president, whereas Machar and other political groups occupied vice-presidential and ministerial positions. The agreement had envisaged elections being conducted in conjunction with the permanent constitutional process.
In this stead, the government says the changes clear legal and institutional obstacles to the long-delayed elections. However, the timing and concentration of this executive authority, are likely to intensify political tensions. The dissolution is coming after many years of delays in implementing the peace agreement, including incomplete security-sector reforms and the unresolved constitutional process. In the play of political chess, this could be political and governance risky-drive, by the “king”.
Kiir’s decision changes the political balance ahead of the forthcoming national election. With the transitional power-sharing arrangement dismantled, the opposition faces a different political and institutional environment, from the one established under the peace agreement. The removal of Machar and the other vice-presidents, also pegged to a South Sudan’s wall how political inclusion and checks on executive authority, will operate during the electoral period.
The government has appointed a caretaker administration, as the electoral authorities’ takeoff preparations for the December poll. But then, as of September the 2nd, 2026, the National Elections Commission says voter registration had not yet begun, meaning a major part of the electoral process has just two months and some days to be completed before the voting ‘festival’.
The development also affects the independence and preparedness of the electoral institutions. Kiir recently dismissed the chairperson of the National Elections Commission, spooking critics to query the act based on the timing and legality of the decision; inspite of the fact that the United Nations has warned that elections without adequate safeguards and inclusive political dialogue, could carry risks for the country’s fragile peace.
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