South Sudan Transitional Government Dissolved Before December Vote

SOUTH SUDAN · POLITICS

Five vice-presidents, both chambers of parliament and every state government went in one order, three months before the country’s first national vote.

President Salva Kiir dissolved the South Sudan transitional government on Tuesday 22 September 2026, ending the power-sharing cabinet created in 2018. A Republican Order read on state television removed the first vice-president and four other vice-presidents.

South Sudan is the world’s youngest country, independent from Sudan since 9 July 2011. It has about 12 million people and has never held a national election as an independent state.

The government dissolved on Tuesday was the one built to reach that first vote. It was created by the 2018 peace deal that ended five years of civil war.

What the South Sudan transitional government lost

The order went far beyond the cabinet. It dissolved the Transitional National Legislative Assembly and the Council of States, the country’s two chambers of parliament.

It also dissolved all 10 state governments and their assemblies. The administrations and legislative councils of the three administrative areas, Abyei, Pibor and Ruweng, were dissolved as well.

Five vice-presidents lost their posts in total. First Vice-President Riek Machar and the four other vice-presidents were relieved with immediate effect.

Five deputies is not a South Sudanese quirk. The 2018 agreement created one first deputy and four vice-presidents, one seat per signatory bloc.

Each vice-president chaired a cabinet cluster — governance, economy, services, infrastructure, gender and youth. The deal required the fourth to be a woman.

National ministers and deputy ministers were also removed. The judiciary, the civil service, the security forces and the independent commissions keep working.

Kiir named a caretaker administration in the same order. It has 13 national ministers, three deputy ministers, 10 state governors and three chief administrators.

Kiir himself stays in office as president. The order says he remains until a newly elected president is sworn in.

The election law changes behind the order

Parliament passed amendments to the National Elections Act on Monday 21 September 2026. Kiir signed them into law the same day.

The amendments drop the rule that a permanent constitution and a national census must be finished before voting. That rule had delayed the ballot for years.

They also require the president to remove the first vice-president and the other vice-presidents within three months of polling day. That clause is what the 22 September order carried out.

The law lets Kiir keep full presidential powers until an elected president takes office. It cuts the national assembly to 270 elected members plus 66 appointed ones.

State assemblies fall to 58 members and administrative area councils to 20. South Sudanese living abroad may vote if they hold valid passports.

The changes amend the National Elections Act of 2012, the law that governs how the country votes. The bill was presented by Dengtiel Ayuen Kuur, who chairs the committee on legislation and legal affairs.

Voter registration, campaign periods and nomination rules were also restructured. The commission has said it still needs regulations to put the amended act into practice.

Where Riek Machar stands now

Machar has been under house arrest since March 2025. He is on trial on charges that include treason and murder, which he denies.

The trial has run through 2026 with repeated adjournments. No verdict has been reported.

It is not clear whether he can stand as a candidate in December. His party has not said how it will treat his removal from office.

His detention in March 2025 broke the unity government in practice. The order of 22 September has now ended it in law.

How the peace deal parties responded

The 2018 peace agreement built the South Sudan transitional government that has now gone. It gave Kiir the presidency, Machar the first vice-presidency and four more vice-presidential posts to other parties.

The South Sudan Opposition Alliance rejected the election law changes. It said they were made without proper consultation among the parties to the agreement.

A faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition, Machar’s party, rejects the December vote. Its acting chairman, Oyet Nathaniel Pierino, warned in August that holding the vote this way risks renewed fighting.

A rival wing of the same party, based in Juba, supports the election. Its leader, Stephen Par Kuol, is now caretaker minister for peacebuilding.

The 2018 deal followed five years of civil war in which about 400,000 people died. Its power-sharing design spread the executive across the former warring parties.

The most cited estimate is 382,900 excess deaths between December 2013 and April 2018. It comes from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

That is close to one person in every 26 then alive in the country. The study counted deaths above what peacetime conditions would have produced.

Why this matters for business in Africa

Oil supplies over 90% of the government’s hard-currency revenue, and every barrel leaves through a pipeline across Sudan. Contracts, permits and payments now sit with caretaker officials rather than an agreed coalition.

The UN Secretary-General put that share in a report to the Security Council in July. The whole national budget for 2026/27 is about US$2.2 billion.

That is roughly US$180 a person for the year. Education takes under 1% of it and healthcare 0.3%.

Output is small by world standards — about 157,000 barrels a day in the current fiscal year. A stoppage there moves Juba’s finances, not the world oil price.

Athian Diing Athian holds finance and Awou Daniel Chiang holds petroleum in the caretaker line-up. Those two posts decide how oil money is collected and spent until the vote.

None of that crude reaches Latin America. Brazilian customs data record no oil imports from South Sudan in any recent year.

The trade runs the other way, and it is food. Brazil sold South Sudan about US$3 million of frozen chicken in 2025.

Brazil had matched that figure again by August 2026. Poultry is nearly all of what Brazil ships there.

What is not known matters as much. Voter registration had not begun by the time the government fell, and no register has been published.

The commission has publicly denied social media claims that registration is under way. It received US$1 million from the government in June to prepare for it.

That is about eight US cents for each of the country’s 12 million people. The commission flagged outstanding legal questions and funding gaps when it confirmed the date.

It is also not known how long the caretaker administration will hold office if the December date slips. Neither the government nor the commission has set out a fallback.

Amnesty International urged the authorities to protect civic space and basic rights during the election period. It said the legitimacy of the vote depends on that.

What to watch before 22 December 2026

The elections commission set 22 December 2026 in June and published it as the law requires. The National Elections Act asks for the date in the official gazette at least six months ahead.

Watch whether voter registration opens in October, because the timetable depends on it. Watch too whether the removed vice-presidents accept the order or challenge it.

Latin America has people on the ground in South Sudan. Brazil, Peru, Guatemala and Uruguay each have officers serving with the UN mission.

Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay and El Salvador also contribute. Together the nine send about 47 people to a force of some 10,000 uniformed personnel.

The next months will show whether South Sudan can reach its first national vote without reopening old divisions.

The big picture: Sudan explained — economy, politics, society and daily life in one read.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many people lost their posts in South Sudan’s government?

Five vice-presidents in total, plus national and deputy ministers, the two chambers of parliament, 10 state governments and three administrative areas.

Is the 22 December 2026 election date official?

Yes. The elections commission announced it on 22 June 2026 and published it in the official gazette.

What is Riek Machar’s position now?

He has been under house arrest since March 2025 and is on trial for treason and murder, which he denies. He has now lost the first vice-presidency.

Sources: Reporting from the Office of the President of South Sudan, the National Elections Commission, Radio Tamazuj, Al Jazeera, ABC News, TimesLIVE and Blueprint. Background verified at the 2018 Revitalised Agreement text, the UN Secretary-General’s report S/2026/640 of 31 July 2026, UN Peacekeeping contribution data, the South Sudan National Elections Commission, the World Bank, the IMF, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Brazil’s Comex Stat.

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