The government's budgetary allocations are insufficient and generous contributions are needed for the electoral process associated with the vote scheduled for December this year, said Martin Elia Lomuro, Minister of Cabinet Affairs, addressing the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC) in Juba.
"We are committed to transparently providing detailed budget sheets to the region, continent, and international partners. We invite them to carefully review and identify areas where they can assist South Sudan in its pursuit of a democratic transition by December 2024," he said as quoted by local media.
Lomuro added that the projected funds for electoral assistance amount to about $2 billion, while the government has allocated only 15% of the total amount needed.
He also noted that among the various election-related costs, $40 million is needed to draft a new constitution. To meet the challenge, the government has proposed a supplementary budget that covers only 63% of the total amount needed, the minister revealed.
For his part, Charles Tai Gituai, Interim Chairperson of R-NMEC, emphasized the importance of this year for South Sudan in preparing for the first democratic process and admitted that a lot of work needs to be done to create an enabling environment for "free, fair and credible elections."
South Sudan appeared on the world's political map on July 9, 2011, after an overwhelming majority of participants in the referendum on self-determination for South Sudan voted to secede from the northern part of the country.
The country was supposed to hold its first elections in 2015, but a few months before the vote, the South Sudanese parliament voted to amend the country's 2011 transitional constitution to extend the powers of the president and parliament until 2018. In 2018, the vote was postponed to 2021 and then to the end of 2024.