Statecraft & Independence
Landmark
Nyandeng Malek Deliech
born 1966
South Sudan's first elected woman governor
Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the South Sudan Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
The first woman elected to govern a state in South Sudan, taking Warrap in 2010 — and one of very few women to hold executive power anywhere in the country's short history.
Nyandeng Malek Deliech joined the Sudan People's Liberation Movement during the war and worked in its civil administration, rising through the movement's women's structures.
In April 2010, at the elections held under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and a year before independence, she was elected governor of Warrap State — the first woman ever elected to govern a state in what became South Sudan, in a political culture in which executive office had been held almost entirely by former commanders, all of them men. Warrap is also the home state of the president, which made the position unusually exposed.
She governed until 2013, when she was among the governors removed by presidential decree, and has continued in national politics and in the movement's leadership. Her election remains the reference point in any argument about women in South Sudanese public life.
In April 2010, at the elections held under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and a year before independence, she was elected governor of Warrap State — the first woman ever elected to govern a state in what became South Sudan, in a political culture in which executive office had been held almost entirely by former commanders, all of them men. Warrap is also the home state of the president, which made the position unusually exposed.
She governed until 2013, when she was among the governors removed by presidential decree, and has continued in national politics and in the movement's leadership. Her election remains the reference point in any argument about women in South Sudanese public life.
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