South Sudan’s parliament plans to provide vehicles to lawmakers under a proposed car-loan scheme, its spokesperson Oliver Mori Benjamin said, hours after legislators passed amendments to the country’s election law.
Mori said on Monday that President Salva Kiir had approved the purchase of the vehicles and that the finance minister had issued a non-objection certificate allowing the process to proceed.
“At the end of the sitting, the Right Honourable (Speaker) made an announcement that the President had earlier given a green light for vehicles to be purchased for members of parliament, and today the Minister of Finance had given the non-objection certificate for these vehicles,” Mori told journalists after the parliamentary session.
Under the proposed arrangement, parliamentary leaders would receive V6 vehicles, while committee chairpersons and other lawmakers would receive five-door Toyota vehicles, Mori said.
“The leadership will get V6 vehicles, the chairs of the committees and so on. The rest of the MPs will get Toyota five-doors for all the members, including even the chairpersons, and these are considered as car loans to the members,” he said.
Mori said the vehicles would initially be treated as loans rather than as an outright entitlement.
He added, however, that the president would have the authority to determine whether the vehicles could instead be treated as part of lawmakers’ entitlements or outstanding dues, particularly as the country moves towards elections.
“In this car loan, the head of state will have the right whether to consider it as part of their entitlement or dues instead of being a loan for them to pay, because soon they’ll be going for election,” Mori said.
The announcement came as lawmakers called for their welfare and transport needs to be addressed before parliament is dissolved ahead of the planned Dec. 22 elections.
Taban Luka Guya of the National Agenda Party said lawmakers had endured difficult conditions and should receive support as they prepare to return to their constituencies.
“At the end, as I’m standing here, it may be the last day to speak. I want to say, this parliament has been suffering for so long,” Guya said.
He said lawmakers needed assistance to travel to their constituencies to campaign for the elections.
“Now, as you are sending us, and I propose on 22nd October, I’m saying, for Christians, Jesus had the last supper,” he said.
“For us in politics, I’m saying, the welfare of the members of parliament, who have been suffering all this time, should be looked into,” Guya added.
Guya specifically called for transport support for lawmakers, saying they needed to return to their constituencies in line with the president’s direction.
“And I’m specific on the issue of the mobility, so that our members of parliament, according to the direction of the president, should go to their constituencies to compete,” he said.
He also called for financial assistance to enable lawmakers to return to their constituencies after parliament is dissolved.
“Number two, they should get something, so that they can now go back also to their constituencies,” he said.
Guya said the prospect of parliament being dissolved had created uncertainty among lawmakers and added that members were facing financial and physical pressure.
“If you dissolve, and we are in this situation, Right Honourable Speaker, from yesterday up to today, I developed something called pressure and sugar,” he said, apparently referring to stress and high blood sugar.
“And with my age, I think I don’t know of other members who are above me. I’m saying, the situation is not easy, we are passing this, we’re 332, but let us look into the welfare of members,” he said.
Election law
The National Legislature passed the National Elections Act, 2012 (Amendment) Bill, 2026, on Monday, and Kiir signed it into law hours later.
The amended law provides for changes to the country’s electoral framework ahead of the Dec. 22 presidential and legislative elections. It allows the incumbent president to remain in office with full constitutional powers throughout the election period until an elected president assumes office.
It also gives the president powers, within three months of the election date, to relieve the first vice president and other vice presidents from office.
The law also provides that the president would, within three months of the election date, dissolve the National Legislature, state legislative assemblies and state governments.
Another provision would allow the incumbent president to partially dissolve the national government and make appointments to key government positions.
The law further changes the composition of the national legislature and separates the holding of elections from the completion of the permanent constitution-making process and a national population and housing census.
South Sudan has scheduled its elections for Dec. 22, 2026, after years of delays since independence in 2011.
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