Yiep Joseph and Sheila Ponnie
Africa-Press – South-Sudan. President Salva Kiir hosted the leader of National Democratic Movement (NDM) Dr Lam Akol at the presidential palace yesterday with electoral preparedness forming the giant share of their discussion.
The two leaders, met who met after over two years of wait, shared hearty moments but also lay on the table the thorny issues that South Sudan must get right to break the chains of endless transition, that the head of state recently decried.
Dr Akol noted that after critical observation of the political atmosphere in Juba, he fully backs the conduct of a free and fair election coming in tandem with the implementation of the peace agreement.
“We discussed with him (President Kiir) the next stage, which is preparations for the general elections, because we know that the peace agreement must end with elections,” he told The City Review.
But for Akol, the question of whether or not to conduct the election depends on the speed of the implementation of the peace agreement.
“It is our belief that it is possible to hold the elections if we speed up the implementation of the requirements that create the atmosphere for elections because our people are anxious to have elections and not extensions.”
“What needs to be done now is create a conducive atmosphere where all the political parties are free to propagate their programs by meeting the people,” he added.
According to the NDM leader, the leading parties must embrace open civic space and allow undeterred entry into each other’s turf in search of votes because that is what democracy is all about.
“The most urgent thing is to create that atmosphere. It does not need money, it does not need another law, it just needs determination” he said
“The SPLM-IG should be free to campaign in the areas of the SPLM-IO, and the IO should be free to campaign in the areas of the SPLM-IG, and like that.”
He added that there is a need to speed up the formation of the political parties in order to kick off with their registration.
“The second thing that needs to be done is the formation of the political party’s council because the law has been passed and it is only the formation that remains, and that is the council that registered the political parties. If the party is not registered, it cannot contest in an election. These two are the most urgent,” he said.
Akol expressed that, beside the above tasks, security arrangements need to be fully implemented, particularly the unification of forces and immediate deployment with the hope of improving security within the country.
He expressed that if the parties to the agreement committed themselves to the implementation of the peace, the remaining tasks could take less than six months, except for the need for a permanent constitution.
“The second phase is the unification of forces, which will not take more than 2–6 months’ maximum; the judicial review will not take three months; the enactment of election bills and the security bill will be after the budget; now the debate will be on the constitution: is it possible to have a permanent constitution in the short time left? That is the issue that needs to be debated by the parties to the peace agreement and the stakeholders,” he explained
Even though South Sudan intends to hold an election in December 2024, there are pending tasks such as unification and redeployment of the army, establishment of the National Elections Commission, formation of the Political Parties Council, and enactment of a permanent constitution.
No turning back
Last week, President Kiir said his government had reached “a critical phase in the consolidation of peace in our country” as he called on the peace partners to join hands and make election a reality.
Kiir told off the doubters of the election that the plan to have the exercise was not an empty talk.
“I say that for the sake of our country [that] we must work to exit from perpetual transition government status… elections are the only way out of this.”
Source: The City Review South Sudan
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