 has announced a two-week nationwide voter registration exercise from November 14 to 28, 2026, ahead of the country's planned general elections.){kind=link}
By Ginaba Lino
The National Election Commission (NEC) has announced a two-week nationwide voter registration exercise from November 14 to 28, 2026, ahead of the country’s planned general elections.
NEC Chairperson Gabriel Bol Deng made the announcement on Friday, declaring that registration will be conducted across South Sudan’s ten states and three administrative areas at 3,161 registration centres.
In a public declaration, the commission encouraged all eligible South Sudanese citizens to participate in the exercise and exercise their democratic right to register and vote.
The commission urged prospective voters to visit their nearest registration centres, present identification documents or other acceptable evidence of identity and age, provide accurate personal information, verify their registration particulars and avoid multiple registrations.
Speaking during a press conference in Juba, Bol said the commission had completed key preparations, including recruiting and training election officials and distributing registration materials to state and administrative area capitals.
He said NEC had recruited and deployed 22,127 registration officials, adding that registration materials and equipment had already reached the respective capitals and arrangements were underway to transport them to individual centres.
“We cannot announce it without knowing that people will have the materials and the workforce on the ground,” Bol said.
He explained that the commission had also appointed and trained constituency returning officers, who subsequently trained registration officials in their respective centres.
The NEC chairperson said the commission would publish a preliminary voter register after the registration exercise, paving the way for political parties and aspiring candidates to proceed with the nomination process in accordance with electoral laws.
Bol said the commission would also organise media training on electoral regulations, accreditation requirements and the media code of conduct to support responsible election coverage.
He called on state high election committees, security agencies, political parties, civil society organisations, community leaders and the media to support public awareness and facilitate an inclusive registration process.
The NEC chairperson described the registration exercise as a critical step towards the planned 2026 general elections, urging citizens to participate in the electoral process.