The chairperson of the Northern Bahr el Ghazal State Elections Commission, Joseph Akuei Yak, has praised the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and the National Elections Commission (NEC) for enabling his office to achieve tremendous strides in preparing for the general elections slated for December 2026.
He made the remarks on Wednesday while appearing on Radio Tamazuj’s “Road to Democracy” program. The program promotes the rule of law, democratic values, good governance, and human rights issues, among others.
“We have achieved many things in partnership with UNMISS and our national office in Juba in terms of engagements with different political parties in the state,” he said. “We have enlightened and trained politicians, civil society organizations, youth, women, and other groups on their role in the upcoming general elections.”
According to Akuei, the media has played a great role during the engagements because so many radio talk shows were conducted in local languages, English, and Arabic to ensure that the message reaches the communities comprehensively.
“We have conducted massive radio talk shows to sensitize the grassroots communities for four days, and some of the callers were asking questions about how the processes were moving and how the elections are going to take place, and we explained to them accordingly,” he said. “The people require the elections because it is their right to choose the leaders of their choice in the governance system, and they said the elections will minimize mistrust and boost confidence among the South Sudanese.”