South Sudan will begin voter registration on Saturday for its first ever elections, the country's poll body said, setting a tight schedule for a vote slated for December 22.
"The voter registration shall commence on 14 November 2026 and shall close on 28 November 2026," Gabriel Bol Deng, chairman of the National Electoral Commission, told a news conference on Friday.
South Sudanese will vote on December 22, the country's first general elections since independence in 2011.
According to the World Bank, some 90 percent of the country’s population of nearly 13 million have no state-recognised identification.
For such people, particularly in rural areas, they will be identified by community leaders and then be issued with an "identification form" enabling them to vote, Bol Deng noted.
A total of 3,161 registration centres have been set up across the country and more than 22,000 staff have been recruited for the operation, he said.
While poll-related equipment has arrived in the capitals of the 10 federal states and the three administrative zones where the elections will be held, it is expected to take several more days to reach some centres further afield, Deng said, meaning less time to register voters in some places.
He added, however, that the logistics were in place to ensure they did get there.
"After 15 days, the commission will publish the preliminary register showing how many people are eligible to vote," Deng explained.
"If someone does not have an ID, especially in villages, paramount chiefs and other community chiefs can identify that person. We also have identification forms for this purpose."
