S.Sudan on course to hold polls in 2015

Juba. South Sudan will hold its first general election in 2015 as slated in the transitional constitution, vice president James Wani Igga has said.The country’s national bureau of statistics had warned that lack of funds could push the census even beyond 2015, thereby making it difficult to demarcate geographical constituencies.The census could redraw the constituencies and determines the composition of the nation and state parliaments. Most of the MPs in the current Parliament were from Khartoum and others were appointed by President Salva Kiir.The lack of funds to organise census was a result of the austerity measures the government adopted after the oil shutdown, reducing government spending by more than 43 per cent.But Mr Igga said that with the continuation of the oil flow, South Sudan would be able to quickly mobilise funds for census and the electoral commission.“Elections will take place in 2015, you know our oil was stopped from flowing and that was our main source of revenue, so with the present gradual improvement of this, I think we should be in position soon to finance the electoral commission and even to finance the census,” Mr Igga told reporters on Thursday on his arrival from the UN General Assembly meeting in New York.“So we can pack together the time so that we do things in short time,” he added.The UN has been urging South Sudan to hold elections as scheduled in 2015Juba had also asked the UN to help her lobby for funds.