Pull up a chair. Get a drink. You are going to need it. The world is a joke, and right now, the **South Sudan election crisis** is the punchline. If you are tracking **political instability in South Sudan**, you know the bar for administrative competence is low, but the government just dug a hole under it. This is a nightmare for a legitimate **democratic transition**, but at least it is an honest look at the state of power in Juba.

President Salva Kiir and his administration have a massive problem. **South Sudan rebels** are closing in, security forces are clashing in the streets, and the whole house is on fire. To mitigate the PR disaster and boost their ranking on the global stage, they decided to hold an election. It is like trying to paint your nails while you are falling off a cliff. They needed to look like a functional country, so they put together a panel for the **National Election Commission**. And here is the best part: They picked a dead man. A guy who has left the building for good. They put him on the list, announced his name, and gave him a high-paying job.

Think about that for a second. You probably cannot even get a call back for a job in this economy, but this guy secured a government position from beyond the grave. That is some real talent—or just definitive proof that the people in charge are completely blind. They are so focused on maintaining their **political power** that they forgot to check if their staff is still breathing. It is the peak of being bad at your job. It is not just a mistake; it is a sign of how much they do not care about the voters. To them, citizens are just names on a spreadsheet. Whether those names have a pulse is a detail they cannot be bothered with.

The government claims it was a 'slip-up.' Everything they do is a slip-up. They have been slipping up for years while the **South Sudan civil war** breaks the country. But they keep their fancy titles and their chairs. They just need to fill the spots on the paper so they can tell the world they are a real government. A dead man is perfect for that. He will not talk back. He will not ask for a raise. He will not plot a coup. He is the most loyal soldier Salva Kiir has ever had. He just sits there and does exactly what he is told, which is nothing.

And then you have the rebels. They are screaming about this, claiming it proves the government is a sham. Well, no kidding. But do not think the rebels are the good guys. They just want to be the ones picking the dead guys. They want the power and the money; they are just the other side of the same dirty coin. It is a coin that has been stepped on and thrown in the mud. One side is greedy and incompetent; the other side is just as greedy but wears different hats. They will kill each other over who gets to sit in the big chair while the rest of the country starves.

Look at our own leaders in the West. Do they seem much different? They read lines from a screen, following rules written a hundred years ago. They are ghosts in expensive suits. South Sudan just stopped pretending. They went ahead and hired a literal ghost. It is the most honest thing a government has done in a long time. Power does not care about life; it only cares about filling a seat.

Imagine being the dead man’s family. You are trying to survive a war, mourning your loss, and then you see the news: your dead uncle is now in charge of the election. It is a sick joke. But the joke is on everyone—the voters who think their voice matters, the soldiers who die for a map, and the people who think a change in the capital will fix their lives. Nothing is going to be fixed because the system is designed to rot.

This is the world we built. We built a world where paperwork is more important than people. As long as the list looks full, the leaders are happy. As long as the panel is 'complete,' they can go back to their fancy dinners while the city burns. So, let’s toast to the dead man. He is the hero of this story. He is the only one not lying or stealing. I wish more politicians would follow his lead; the world would be a lot quieter. But the live ones are still here, hungry for power. They will keep appointing ghosts, and we will keep watching, because we are the audience for a play that should have been cancelled a long time ago. The actors are tired, the script is gone, and now, the cast is starting to rot. Literally.

### References & Fact-Check * **Primary Source**: [South Sudan Appoints Dead Man to Election Panel, as Political Crisis Grows](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/world/africa/south-sudan-dead-man-election-crisis.html) - *The New York Times* * **Contextual Authority**: [South Sudan: Peace and Conflict Context](https://www.un.org/en/situation-in-south-sudan) - *United Nations Security Council Reports* * **Subject**: President Salva Kiir and the 2026 South Sudan National Elections.