The Cardinal of the Catholic Church in South Sudan, Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla, has called on the South Sudanese to have hope in the elections in December 2024. His Eminence made the call during a Christmas Mass at St Theresa’s Cathedral in Juba.

“What could prevent a democratic election at the end of 2024? I hope let us be men and women who bring hope to others; we are people who can be challenged; we were challenged when the Holy Father came to South Sudan; it was barely two months to prepare for the coming of the Holy Father,” he said.

“If we as your church leaders were to say we cannot prepare for the visit of the Holy Father because it was a short time, the Holy Father would not have come to South Sudan, but some of us courageously said let the Holy Father come, and together we managed to prepare for what we called a very successful visit, and he was impressed,” added said.

The Church leader expressed confidence that South Sudan can conduct free and fair elections by the end of 2024. “Many journalists have challenged me on why I say we can hold elections at the end of 2024, and I told them we can live 12 months, and in these 12 months, many things can happen. A man takes a woman, and he marries that woman, and they will give birth to a child, and at the end of this 12 months, there is already a family,” he said.

Ameyu pledged that the church in South Sudan is supporting the revitalized peace agreement, urging for the implementation of outstanding issues in the agreement.

“We are at the end of the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement, and all of us as church people are supportive of this revitalized peace agreement, but there are outstanding issues that we would like to implement together; among these is a foreseen election, the election is not an easy thing,” he concludes.

South Sudan was meant to conclude a transition period with elections in February 2023, but the transitional government failed to meet key provisions of the agreement, including drafting a constitution and unifying the army.

The parties to the agreement extended the transitional government’s time in office for another two years, meaning general elections would be held in December 2024.

But many observers believe that South Sudan currently is not in a position to conduct credible elections in December 2024 as more work remains to be done to prepare for the polls. Some of the critical tasks required before elections could take place includes opening of political and civic spaces, funding of electoral institutions, drafting of a permanent constitution, determining voter eligibility, the voting process, and the deployment of properly trained and equipped unified forces.