Africa-Press – South-Sudan. President Salva Kiir is set to announce plans for the transitional period that will culminate in holding free, fair and credible elections.
The Minister for Cabinet Affairs, Dr Martin Elia Lomuro, yesterday assured the country that the implementation of the peace agreement was firm and would ensure the stability of the country in the long run.
Lomuro was speaking during the celebration organised by Egyptian Embassy at the Pyramid Hotel.
The event was attended by government officials such as the Vice President for Infrastructure Cluster, Taban Deng Gai, the Minister for Defence, Angelina Teny, the Minister for Justice, Ruben Madol Arol, the Speaker of the Reconstituted Transitional National Legislative Assembly (R-TNLA), Jemma Nunu Kumba, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Deng Dau Deng, and the First Deputy Speaker of the R-TNLA, Nathaniel Oyet, among other senior government officials.
“I am aware of so many consultations going on. We will assure you again that in the next few days, you will see the president unveiling his agenda, to ensure that the peace agreement ends in an election that is free, fair and credible,” Lomuro said.
He urged US to withdraw their support for the peace monitoring bodies to re-examine their decision and render full support to the implementation of the Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS).
Lomuro stressed that the roadmap towards the end of the transitional period would be made according to the agreement of all the parties to the accord.
“We South Sudanese have been through nearly 75 years of struggle since 1947. We have seen suffering, and we are very careful about the generations that are coming. I want to assure everyone that the peace agreement in spite of challenges is going to… end in the democratic election at the end of the transitional period,” he added.
“I am aware that everybody is concerned about how the transitional period will end, the transitional period will end with a discussion, and an agreement between the parties to the agreement.”
He reiterated the government’s support to iron out a disagreement between parties to the agreement in the parliament and vowed that the government was tenured to resolve it amicably.
He lauded the Egyptian government for relentless support to the nation in various disciplines including education, health, and energy to mention but a few.
On Monday, the leading Opposition Movement, Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) stated that the roadmap that would soon be discussed by the presidency was developed without their contribution.
Puok Both Baluang, the Director for Information and Public Relations, in the office of the First Vice President, Dr Riek Machar Teny, recently told The City Review that the roadmap was ‘‘a document of the SPLM-IG.”
“We as SPLM-IO hear about the so-called roadmap presented to President Salva Kiir on the news. We did not take part in it and we are not aware of the content of the document which is being called roadmap [because] we believe [that] it is the SPLM-IG roadmap,” Puok said on Sunday.
Pinch of salt
He noted that he would give his reaction to it after viewing the contents of the document.
“If it is the roadmap of the SPLM-IG to facilitate the implementation of the remaining chapters of the agreement, [then] we want to look at the content first then we have a reaction to it,” he said.
He reiterated that SPLM-IO would support the roadmap if it would restore peace across the country.
“We [want to] believe [that] it is a transformative document that can transform the nature and structure of this state and it is also the remedy of all the problems this country is facing and also addressing the road causes of the conflict,” he stated.
The opposition had been sitting on the fence on the discussions pertaining to elections, demanding fully-paced implementation of the agreement through completion of prerequisites, like a graduation of Necessary Unified Forces (NUF), dignified repatriation of refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
In April 2022, the president confirmed the ranks of opposition forces and the unified command structure of the unified forces. However, the date for the graduation of forces will be decided by the presidency soon, to put a seal on Chapter Two, of the Revitalised Peace Agreement.
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