South Sudan Election Commission Warns of Fake Online Voter Registration Link

South Sudan's National Elections Commission warned on November 6 that a voter-registration link circulating online is fake, telling citizens not to submit details through the form ahead of the planned December 22 general election. Commissioner Josephine Achiro Fortelo told Eye Radio that the commission has not created a website or app for online registration and that eligible voters will have to register in person at designated centres once the official exercise opens.

The warning follows reports of a form being shared as though it belonged to the election authority. Fortelo urged citizens to wait for a formal announcement. The Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) said it had checked the link with commission leadership and determined that it was not official. Neither the commission's warning nor the available reporting establishes who created the link, whether personal data were collected, or whether any offence has been committed. TFNOS is not reproducing the unverified link.

The commission's September 2 written statement provides independent documentary context for the registration method. It said the exercise would be conducted manually, in person and on paper across the country's ten states and three administrative areas, with the information subsequently entered into computer systems. That September statement also rejected false registration totals and said an official notice would identify dates, centres and required documents. Its statement that no registration had begun was accurate as of September 2, not an independently verified account of the situation on November 7.

The November 6 warning is a separate development from TFNOS's earlier report that the commission had identified 3,161 registration centres without announcing a start date. Identifying locations does not itself open registration or establish that each centre is operating.

Fortelo also said the commission had not yet decided whether citizens living abroad would be able to vote. Any overseas arrangements, she said, would depend on further logistical decisions. It would therefore be inaccurate to tell diaspora voters that an online registration channel is available.

The public-interest issue is immediate: an unauthorised form could mislead prospective voters and undermine trust in the official process. CEPO called for stronger election-information checks, while the commission asked voters to rely on its authorised announcements. No confirmed victim count, personal-data breach, investigation outcome or perpetrator identity was available in the records reviewed.

The next verifiable milestones are an official registration-opening notice, a centre-by-centre directory, publication of the 14 electoral regulations recently approved by the commission, clarification of overseas voting and any documented inquiry into the impersonating link. Until then, voters should use the commission's official channels rather than a forwarded registration form.