In South Sudan, a country plagued by endemic corruption, hundreds of MPs will each receive a car because they voted in favor of an electoral law that allows President Salva Kiir to concentrate power in his hands until the results of the presidential and parliamentary elections in December are announced.

The bill, which was approved by the president on Monday, provides for the vice presidents to be relieved of their duties, although this measure does not appear likely to reassure the residents of a country that experienced a bloody civil war (400,000 people were killed between 2013 and 2018) and where violence continues.

The non-governmental organization Transparency International considers South Sudan the most corrupt country in the world. At the same time, it is also the least developed, and the link between these two phenomena is evident.

On Monday, Oliver Mori, a spokesman for the National Assembly, told reporters after the vote that President Kiir had “given the green light for the purchase of cars for MPs.” The most senior officials will receive “V6 cars” (with more powerful engines), while the others will receive five-door sedans, in the form of a loan. The president will decide in the future whether these cars are part of the MPs’ “benefits or remuneration” or whether they will have to pay them back.

The National Assembly has 650 members, appointed by Salva Kiir. The country’s population is approximately 12.5 million.

“This is corruption,” said Wani Michael, a former South Sudanese youth leader who is now in exile. “There was a negotiation and the president promised them cars” in exchange for their votes, he told Agence France-Presse, noting, however, that many MPs are “very poor” and their income does not exceed $50 a month, when they are paid.

Similar reactions were seen in 2018, when individual loans of $40,000 were provided so that MPs could buy cars.

In September 2025, the South Sudan Human Rights Commission, acting on behalf of the UN Human Rights Council, denounced the “predatory” political elite that has misappropriated billions of dollars in the country’s oil revenues. The Commission noted that only 0.7% of the state budget was allocated to healthcare in 2023–24, an amount… equal to President Salva Kiir’s medical expenses.

On Sunday, U.S. diplomacy said via X that it would use “all available tools,” including sanctions, to “end impunity” in South Sudan.

Salva Kiir’s forces fought those of Riek Machar for five years, between 2013 and 2018. The war ended with a peace agreement under which the former assumed the presidency and the latter the vice presidency of the “government of national unity.” However, Machar was arrested in March 2025 and placed under house arrest, and since then fierce clashes have once again erupted between his supporters and those of Kiir.