South Sudan President Says He Will Be a Candidate in Long-Delayed Elections Set for 2024 

President Salva Kiir of South Sudan. (Reuters)
President Salva Kiir of South Sudan. (Reuters)
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South Sudan President Says He Will Be a Candidate in Long-Delayed Elections Set for 2024 

President Salva Kiir of South Sudan. (Reuters)
President Salva Kiir of South Sudan. (Reuters)

President Salva Kiir of South Sudan says his country's long-delayed elections will take place in 2024 and that he will be on the ballot.

Kiir, who has led South Sudan since the territory became independent of Sudan in 2011, accepted the endorsement of the ruling party at a stadium event Tuesday in Bahr el Ghazal.

“I am deeply touched by your endorsement and your continued support to our historic party,” Kiir told tens of thousands of supporters at the Wau Stadium.

Kiir is expected to face his long-time rival, First Vice President Riek Machar, who has yet to confirm his candidacy.

The opposition has accused the government of lacking the political will to hold elections.

But Kiir said he was committed to free and fair elections.

The vote would be the country’s first and the culmination of the peace agreement signed nearly five years ago to pull the young nation out of fighting that killed some 400,000 people.

While large-scale clashes have subsided, violence in parts of the country persists, killing 2,240 people last year, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.



Musk Says He Is ‘All in’ on Trump in US Election

Tesla CEO Elon Musk (R) speaks on stage as he joins former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign rally at site of his first assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania on October 5, 2024. (AFP)
Tesla CEO Elon Musk (R) speaks on stage as he joins former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign rally at site of his first assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania on October 5, 2024. (AFP)
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Musk Says He Is ‘All in’ on Trump in US Election

Tesla CEO Elon Musk (R) speaks on stage as he joins former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign rally at site of his first assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania on October 5, 2024. (AFP)
Tesla CEO Elon Musk (R) speaks on stage as he joins former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign rally at site of his first assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania on October 5, 2024. (AFP)

Elon Musk is ramping up his public support of Donald Trump, telling Tucker Carlson in a conversation streamed Monday that he is "all in" on the Republican presidential candidate.

After appearing alongside Trump at a weekend rally, the world's richest man used a cozy two-hour chat with Carlson to push right-wing talking points, including what he said was the threat to democracy if Democrat Kamala Harris prevails in November's election.

"My view is that if Trump doesn't win this election, it's the last election we're going to have," the Tesla and SpaceX boss told former Fox News host Carlson.

Musk, who has increasingly courted controversy in recent years, said he believed "illegals" -- migrants -- were being deliberately transported to a handful of key states, where if they are eventually granted citizenship, they would become Democrat voters.

"Now these swing-state margins are sometimes ten- twenty-thousand votes. So what happens if you put hundreds of thousands of people into each swing state?

"So my prediction is, if there's another four years of a Dem administration, they will legalize so many illegals that... the next election there won't be any swing states, and this will be a single-party country."

The assertions from Musk -- who is himself from South Africa -- are a common refrain on the political right, which alleges a conspiracy between Democrats and immigrants.

Musk is increasingly becoming a surrogate for Trump on the campaign trail, and is reportedly planning to make a number of stops in battleground states in the coming weeks.

Over the weekend, he unveiled a program promising to pay $47 to anyone who registers voters in Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and Michigan.

The scheme is looking to copy successful referral programs the South Africa-born entrepreneur has used in the past with his Tesla electric cars.

In his nearly two-hour chat with Carlson, in which the two men chuckled repeatedly at each other's pronouncements, Musk said he had thrown his full backing behind fellow billionaire Trump.

"If he loses, it's going to be hard for you to pretend you never supported him," said Carlson.

"I'm like, all in, baby," replied Musk.

"How long do you think my prison sentence is gonna be?" he chortled, laughing at the idea that the tables would turn against him under a Democratic administration. "Will I see my children? I don't know."