South Sudan’s presidency has approved a series of amendments to the 2018 peace agreement, removing provisions it says block general elections next year, a move that has drawn criticism from the main opposition party and civil society groups.
The decision was taken at a special meeting of the expanded presidency chaired by President Salva Kiir in Juba on Wednesday.
The amendments revise the Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS), which had tied elections to the completion of a permanent constitution — a process that remains unfinished seven years after the deal was signed.
Under the changes, according to documents reviewed by Radio Tamazuj, national elections will no longer be linked to the adoption of a permanent constitution. Instead, polls will be conducted under the Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan, 2011, as amended.
The preamble to the amendment document states that the parties were “aware of the need to delink national elections from the permanent constitution” and to conduct them in line with the transitional charter.
The documents show that Article 1.20.5 was amended to direct the National Elections Commission to organise elections in accordance with the Transitional Constitution sixty days before the end of the transitional period.
Article 1.2.14 was revised to require a national population and housing census to be conducted after the elections, rather than before.
Article 1.20.6 shortens the timeframe for amending the National Elections Act, 2012, to two months to align it with the Transitional Constitution, while Article 1.20.10 reduces the deadline for publishing the final voter register from six months to three months before the elections.
The amendments also repeal Articles 6.4, 8.2 and 8.3 of the R-ARCSS and rename Chapter VIII as “Procedures for Amendment of the Agreement,” formalising the process used to adopt the changes.
The revised provisions were signed by Justice Minister Michael Makuei Lueth for the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), Johnson Maylik Akol for a faction of the SPLM-IO, and Wilson Lodiong Sebit for the group representing Other Political Parties (OPP).
Cabinet Affairs Minister Martin Elia Lomuro told reporters after the presidency meeting that the changes would now undergo institutional approval, including review by the Council of Ministers, the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC) and ratification by the national legislature.
In a statement, the presidency said the amendments reflected public demand for elections in December 2026 and reaffirmed leaders’ commitment to peaceful and democratic polls.
If approved by parliament, the changes could pave the way for South Sudan’s first national elections since independence in 2011, a vote widely seen as critical to ending years of political transition.
SPLM-IO rejects the changes
Reacting to the amendments, Dut Majokdit, a member of the SPLM-IO Political Bureau aligned with suspended First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar, told Radio Tamazuj that the changes were illegal and aimed at excluding key signatories from the peace process.
He said the revisions were adopted without the consent of parties that signed the 2018 Revitalised Peace Agreement, accusing the ruling SPLM of seeking to isolate SPLM-IO leader and First Vice President Riek Machar ahead of the planned general elections.
Dut said the repeal of several articles of the agreement, changes to the voter registration timeline and the removal of references to a permanent constitution amounted to an abrogation of the peace deal. He added that any decisions taken by the presidency in the absence of Machar were procedurally flawed.
The SPLM-IO, he said, rejects the amendments in their entirety and remains committed to resolving disputes through dialogue.
Civil society excluded
Civil society groups also raised concerns over the process used to amend the 2018 peace agreement.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj, Edmund Yakani, executive director of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organisation (CEPO) and a recognised stakeholder signatory to the 2018 Revitalised Peace Agreement, said he was surprised to first learn of the amendments through the media.
Yakani said the document endorsed by the presidency focused on delinking the constitutional-making process and the conduct of a population census from elections, and was signed by a group of political parties.
However, he said civil society stakeholders were not consulted or engaged, despite the document referring to “stakeholder signatories” as having jointly participated in reaching the decision.
“As one of the stakeholder signatories to the R-ARCSS, we were completely excluded from this process,” Yakani said. “We are deeply disturbed that our status was used in a process in which we had no involvement at all.”
Yakani said civil society attempts to initiate inclusive dialogue on addressing outstanding tasks under the peace agreement had been undermined, warning that the manner in which the amendments were handled risked weakening trust in the peace process.
“Our disappointment should not be mistaken for a demand to extend or postpone elections,” he said. “Our concern is about process, inclusion and respect for the agreement.”
Yakani said there was no signature representing stakeholder signatories on the amendment document and described the use of the phrase “parties and stakeholders” as misleading.
On December 10, President Kiir, who also leads the ruling SPLM, convened a rare high-level meeting of political party leaders to shape the final phase of the country’s protracted transition and prepare for elections scheduled for 2026 under the Roadmap.
In a statement after the meeting, the presidency said the parties agreed to amend several key provisions of the 2018 Revitalised Peace Agreement, which has struggled to advance beyond paper commitments to pave the way for elections.
The peace deal has faced repeated delays, including missed election timelines that have been pushed back several times and are now scheduled for December 2026.