Africa-Press – South-Sudan. By Yiep Joseph
A team of experts on the election from the African Union and other key players is in Juba to assess and engage stakeholders concerning the preparations for a permanent constitution-making process that would lead to the free and fair election next year.
According to Ambassador Professor Joram Mukama Biswaro SRCC, Head of all African Missions in South Sudan, the team of experts from the African Union, UNDP, IGAD, R-JMEC was mandated by African Union to collect views from all stakeholders in the country regarding the election.
“This was a follow-up from 25th January peace and security council session which came up with a communique, in that said that trilateral (three bodies) team reconstituted by the Chairperson of the Chairperson of the African Union MoussaFakiMahamat to visit Juba to team up with the UN, UNDP IGAD R-JEMC to see and assess the election requirements,” Biswaro said. He revealed that the team would be in Juba for one week to engage all stakeholders.
“So a team of experts has been constituted led by my brother here professor BabatundeFagbayibo joined by Professor Abraham from UNDP and Hassan from Kenya to start this exercise, they will be here for one week to speed up their work until Saturday while they are on the ground. They will be meeting some Ministers in R-TGoNU for example Minister for Interior, Minister of Cabinet Affairs, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, the speaker, the Civil society, political parties among others to gather their views about the election” he said.
At the same time, Ahmed Issack Hassan election consultant of the former electoral chairman in Kenya who is a member of the team revealed that the team would focus on assessing the level of preparation of the stakeholders in regard to the election process.
“We are part of the trilateral mission which is composed of African Union, IGAD UN, and UNDP, we came here to assess the state of preparedness of the country for the constitution-making process and the election,” Hassan said.
He added that the mission brought together the AU, IGAD, and UN under one group to do a preparatory framework to support South Sudan in the process for a permanent constitution and for election
“We have been having a series of meetings to engage with the country’s stakeholders and the International partners to basically engage and talk about how far we are in the implementation of the peace agreement whether the country is ready since we are coming to the end of the peace agreement,” he said.
Hassan said that the team came to assess how far in regards to the agreement and make a report to the AU security council which was going to inform on how AU and partners are going to support the country” he said BabatundeFagbayibo professor of International Law, University of South Africa said that peace remained a task of AU.
“The stability of the country is the task of the continent and the continent has to ensure that the country is stable for the need of the deadline and some of the position on the Revitalized Peace Agreement,” Babatunde said.
Prof Abraham KuolNyuonadded that the AU mission is based on the resolution of the African Union which was done on 25th January 2022 He said that the mission is supposed to create an environment to discuss what next that is going to be done since the timeline of the peace agreement is coming to an end and the election may come” Abraham added.
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