AFRICA/SOUTH SUDAN – Auxiliary Bishop of Juba: “How do you conduct elections without a census and a constitution?”

Juba – “How can elections be held if there is no population census and no permanent Constitution?” asked Msgr. Santo Loku Pio Doggale, Auxiliary Bishop of Juba, the capital of South Sudan, speaking at a Church event last week.
“Now they want to conduct elections, but there is no census—unless they conducted it secretly, because elections cannot be conducted without knowing the size of the population,” Bishop Doggale said. “They want to conduct elections when the country does not have a permanent constitution. How do you conduct elections without a census and a constitution? These two things are the foundations of elections,” he stressed.
“It is through a census that geographical locations and population distribution are determined. You have wasted the time of the people of South Sudan since 2005, but God is great, and He will listen to our patience,” the Auxiliary Bishop of Juba added.
On 1 September 2026, South Sudan’s Transitional National Legislative Assembly approved, during a closed-door session, Bill No. 13 of 2026, amending the 2011 Transitional Constitution of South Sudan. Journalists and members of the public were ordered to leave the chamber on the instructions of the Speaker, who cited national security concerns. The legislative process was completed in a single day, and the bill was approved unanimously.
Two days later, President Salva Kiir signed Amendment N0 13 to the transitional constitution, removing the legal requirement for a population census and a permanent constitution before elections.
The measure amends provisions of the Transitional Constitution in order to remove two requirements set out in the 2018 Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan as prerequisites for the holding of general elections: the completion of a national population and housing census and the adoption of a permanent Constitution.
Elections can now proceed under the amended Transitional Constitution. The census and the process of drafting the permanent Constitution have been postponed until after the elections, leaving them to be addressed by a future elected government.
The government has presented the move as a measure aimed at removing legal obstacles and thereby allowing the elections scheduled for 22 December 2026 to go ahead. These will be the first general elections in South Sudan since the country gained independence in 2011.

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