Nairobi, April 20 -- As clock ticks to December election, South Sudan has three choices, none of which can end the conflict: Holding them outside the 2018 peace agreement or coming up with a new deal that legally cements the polls.

The chairperson of the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC), Gen (rtd) Charles Gituai says the South Sudan authorities have to either hold elections according to the 2018 or renegotiate a new deal that would allow them to hold elections outside the agreement.

Failure to do this would mean that the transitional government will have no legitimacy after February 2025, the end of the transitional arrangement.

Read: South Sudan likely to extend transition again

JMEC is the watchdog that monitors the...