The cabinet has insisted that the elections will take place as planned in December 2024, saying delays in the implementation of security arrangements will not affect the polls.

Speaking to reports after the cabinet meeting in Juba on Friday, Information Minister and Government Spokesman Michael Makuei Lueth insisted that the implementation of the roadmap is on track.

 “The implementation of the roadmap is not an event, so people should not just get frightened because they are not seeing anything happening. The implementation of the roadmap of the agreement is going on well. The fact that the security forces have not been deployed up to now and that phase two of the forces is not yet in the training centre, all these will happen within a short time,” Makuei said. 

 “The problem will not be the security if at all there will be no elections. The problem will not be the delay in the security arrangement but despite all these fears and despite the doubting Thomases that there will be no elections, we assure you that we are going for elections. So anybody who is saying he is not going for elections it will be up to him to give his or her justification, but for us, we are going for elections,” he added.

Disarmament Bill

Separately, Minister Makuei said the Council of Ministers on Friday approved the Disarmament of Civil Population Bill 2023.

He said the bill was first issued as a provisional order by the President in December 2020 but was not presented in time to Parliament for consideration that is why it was rejected by Parliament because its time had lapsed.

Makuei said Justice Minister Ruben Madol Arol re-tabled the order as a bill before the cabinet, and as such, the cabinet approved it and the justice minister was directed to table the bill before the transitional legislative assembly for consideration.

He noted that the bill will help the government to conduct comprehensive disarmament of the civil population as it has been facing difficulties in removing guns from the hands of civilians.

 “So this time, the disarmament will be concurrent so that we avoid this question of disarming some communities and leaving out others so that the approach will be holistic and we hope that it will be in the interest of the public,” he explained.

Peace dissemination budget

Minister Makuei said the cabinet on Friday approved over 2.7 million South Sudanese Pounds for the National Ministry of Peacebuilding to conduct a peace dissemination campaign.

 “The cabinet had approved a sum of money for the campaign but that campaign did not take place because the amount that was approved could not be paid by the Ministry of Finance, so the minister of peacebuilding made a presentation again to the cabinet requesting that he needs the money so that we can disseminate the peace agreement and the roadmap to the people of South Sudan,” he said.