Africa-Press – South-Sudan. South Sudan’s main armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) has said that the remaining 16 months of the transitional period are not enough to prepare for elections.
Puok Both Baluang, SPLM-IO Director of Information and Public Relations, says that for a permanent constitution to be completed, the party signatories to the revitalized peace agreement need at least 24 months.
“For the parties to work on a permanent constitution, they need 24 months, according to the experts and the extension of the transitional period was done based on the recommendation of the experts,” he said during an interview with Radio Tamazuj.
South Sudan is set to go for its first elections in December 2024. This is based on a peace road map for extension of the transitional period that was signed by the parties in August last year after failing to implement key provisions of the deal at the end of the first transitional period.
Baluang said that there is a lack of will to implement the revitalized peace deal and that the remaining time is not enough to implement all the pending tasks that includes drafting of a permanent constitution, and reunification of the rival forces.
“Also, if there were political will, we would have implemented the issue of security arrangements, including the deployment of the unified forces. The other challenge is the lack of political space besides the repatriation of the refugees,” he said.
“We believe that the remaining period is not enough to implement the pending tasks that will qualify us to hold free and fair elections,” he added. The SPLM-IO is one of the two main signatories to the revitalized peace agreement, which was signed in 2018.
The agreement aims to end the civil war that has been raging in South Sudan since 2013 and prepare the country for elections, the first since the world’s youngest country gain independence from neighboring Sudan in July 2011.
The transitional period is scheduled to end in February 2025, and elections are expected two months before that time. However, there have been delays in the implementation of the peace agreement. This has raised concerns that South Sudan may not be ready to hold elections by that time.
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