JUBA, JUNE 4, 2023 (SUDANS POST) – A team of experts from the African Union (AU) are currently training youth in Juba to prepare them for the elections slated for December 2024, a top South Sudanese diplomat has revealed. 

James Morgan, South Sudan’s ambassador to Ethiopia & Djibouti and South Sudan’s envoy to the African Union, and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development said following a meeting with President Salva Kiir that youth are being trained by the AU on how to conduct elections.

“Experts from the African Union are training a number of South Sudanese youth on how to conduct elections, ahead of the 2024 polls,” he told the media following the meeting at the presidential palace J1 on Wednesday.

South Sudan is expected to go for elections – the country’s first since independence in 2011 – in December next year with President Kiir – head of the ruling SPLM party – and Peter Mayen Majongdit, leader of the People’s Liberal Party (PLP) being the known candidates.

The main armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) led by First Vice President Riek Machar Teny has not yet selected a candidate and has previously said that it will “easily” win a free and fair elections.