South Sudan replaces election commission chief ahead of December vote
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NAIROBI, Sept 16 - South Sudan's President Salva Kiir has replaced the head of the election commission, only about three months before the first national election since independence in 2011.
• The president, in an announcement read out by the state-owned broadcaster on Tuesday, said commission Secretary General Gabriel Bol Deng will replace Abednego Akok Kacuol. He gave no reason for the change.
• South Sudan has been at peace since a 2018 agreement ended a five-year conflict during which thousands of people were killed. Still, inter-communal violence is frequent.
• Presidential and parliamentary elections are scheduled for December 22.
• Last week, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan said safeguards and conditions for peaceful and credible elections were missing.
• "South Sudanese do have a right to vote; that right must be protected by ensuring they can participate freely, compete fairly, and resolve any electoral disputes through credible adjudication," one of the UN commissioners, Barney Afako, said in a statement last Thursday. REUTERS