A group of South Sudanese lawyers took legal action on Monday, filing a case with the Supreme Court to contest the president’s decision to delay elections and extend the transitional government’s term by two years.
Ten days prior, President Salva Kiir’s office announced the extension, marking the second postponement after a previous delay in 2022.
The decision, ratified by parliament last week, had originally set elections for December.
The lawyers, led by Deng John Deng, are seeking to have the extension declared “null and void,” stating, “As lawyers, we think that this extension is unconstitutional, is illegal and we (are) demanding our government to conduct elections within the time-frame.”
Information Minister Michael Makuei did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The delay led international guarantors of South Sudan’s peace process to voice their disappointment, stating it reflected the government’s inability to fulfill the 2018 peace accord.
Although South Sudan has officially been at peace since the agreement ended a five-year war that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, frequent clashes still occur between rival communities.
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