Africa-Press – South-Sudan. It has been over one month since the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army in Opposition (SPLM/A-IO) promised to fill the vacant positions left by its defectors.
The SPLM-IO said in November, after failing to elect a deputy chairperson when the National Liberation Council (NLC) met in Juba, that filling those vacancies was a “stone throw away”. But no fresh development has been forthcoming.
If the Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS) is anything to go by, the country is set to go to the polls in 2023. Hence, President Salva Kiir has been calling for the opposition parties to initiate prior preparations for elections.
But what lies ahead of SPLM/A-IO remains a guess. The outfit is healing from massive defections and is battling the current rift with its Kit Gwang splinter group. The two sides recently engaged in a military confrontation in the Upper Nile.
SPLM/A-IO recently showed readiness to dialogue with Kit Gwang’s declaration, but the call has yet to materialise. The filling of the vacant positions within the party’s structure has also been postponed several times.
However, the Director for Information and Public Relations in the office of the First Vice President, Dr Riek Machar Teny, Puok Both Baluang, told The City Review in an exclusive interview that the delays have been occasioned by chains of consultations to churn out the rightful nominees.
“The consultation is still ongoing on how or who will be the next deputy chair and commander-in-chief of the SPLM/A-IO. The announcement will not be separate but will be together with the other vacant structures within the SPLM/A-IO, ” he assured.
He alleviated fears that nothing was alarming about the need to fill some of those positions because, after all, they have been unoccupied for years. Baluang said: “The vacant positions have no effect, they have been there since 2016 or before that.” This committee has the chair, the deputy chair, and the directors or secretariat, plus the other structures.
“In the absence of the chair of the national committee, the deputy will step in, but that doesn’t mean that he becomes the chair. All these will not affect the operations of SPLM/A-IO, it is necessary to have a complete structure for the party. “
SPLM/A-IO’s political future He said the delays are not related to the Kit Gwang faction or the defections to other political parties. However, Pouk stressed that SPLM/A-IO had nearly completed its internal transformation from a movement to a political party as the screening and graduation of forces continues to take shape.
“We are moving towards the right course as the SPLM/A-IO. We are transforming from the implementation of security arrangements to a political movement.
“With the full implementation of the security arrangements, “there will be no SPLM/A-IO, or there will be no longer SSOA forces, or there will be no forces for the SPLM/A-IG; we shall become the national army for South Sudan,” he said.
“We have started our work on the transformation to a political party, and we are waiting for the parliament to pass the political party bill. After that, we will register as a political party.”
He disclosed that they had launched their general secretariat in Juba and would soon establish secretariats in the states and install the state party chairpersons.
Baluang said the national convention would be held next year to elect the chairperson and state chairpersons. He emphasised that despite numerous defections, including tensions with Kit Gwang factions, the SPLM/A-IO’s political future was “bright.”
“I can tell that the political future of the SPLM/A-IO is very bright, and we are moving on the right course.
“We have almost finished our internal arrangements on how we can set up as a political party that has a mission and vision for this country,’’ he said.
Prepared for elections He agreed that their party was ready for an election but cited several issues at hand that must first be in place before the elections can take place.
These were the full security arrangements, the permanent constitution, the return of refugees, the census to be conducted, the formation of the electoral commission and the passing of the political parties’ bill. Some of these are underway, while others are expected to be done before the elections.
“For the election to be transparent and free, there is a very crucial element that needs to be in place before that: first, there should be a full security arrangement in place,” he explained.
“Secondly, we have a problem with the constitution, plus we have all the refugees returning to the country.” “Then we should have them in place, and also have the political parties’ bill passed by the parliament.
“We have an electoral commission to be in place, so all these are very important for transparent and free elections, and I believe they are not in place now.” Party still strong
The information director said that the party was still strong even with the unfilled positions as well as the defections and distractions from the Kit Gwang faction.
“It is not the first time we have had defections within a political party and some of these groups, their defections were engineered by the enemies of peace, the enemies of SPLM/A-IO so that they could create division and destabilise the situation and the implementation of the peace agreement,” he said.
He added that the group commanded a small strip at the country’s border with Sudan, and they remained unshaken by the defections. Baluang added, “The SPLM/A-IO is still strong and moving forward because we are getting new recruitment.”
Although he revealed that the outcomes of the negotiations between Kit Gwang and SPLM-IG are yet to materialise, he pledged their party’s readiness to join the negotiating table.
“The question we should ask ourselves is: where are they defecting to? This shows that they made an ill-fated decision, which is why they decided to defection. “
“They are demanding something from a party that they have defected from. Where is the logic there? If they are demanding something after they announce their defection, they are supposed to get their demands from the party that they are negotiating with,” he said,” as he explained that they owe nothing to the Gen. Simon Gatwech-led group.
He revealed that the SPLM/A-IO sent legislators to Sudan for talks last year, but the Kit Gwang group was unresponsive. Long wait When appointed, the new deputy will take over for Henry Odwar, who is currently a supporter of Kit Gwang’s declaration.
Apart from the Kit Gwang faction of Simon Gatwech and Johnson Olony, SPLM/A-IO has recently seen serious defections to SPLM-IG, including a huge number of 310 members who switched allegiance to President Salva Kiir in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State last year.
There were also defections of the SPLM/A-IO generals in Upper Nile State, including that of the commissioner of Longechuk County, which had been devastated by floods leaving people in dire humanitarian need.
Both assured Kiir’s government that there was a high possibility of SPLM/A-IO members not being present in northern Bahr el Ghazal and Longechuk County. Their reasons for defecting included accusing Machar’s party of nepotism and a lack of vision, among other reasons.
Dr Riek Machar responded that such defections were catalysed by the love of money, cars, and political positions, describing them as those who did not have the strong political will and were “swept away by events.”
“A person who does not have a strong political feeling towards his party will be swept by events, so I saw it brought in the agenda part of it, how to resource the party is important,” he said.
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