Juba South Sudan ] Political Bureau of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) on Tuesday approved the dismissal of the party’s former deputy chairperson Dr. Riek Machar and Secretary General Pagan Amum.
Addressing the media on Wednesday following a meeting of the SPLM National Liberation Council (NLC) chaired by the party chairperson President Salva Kiir, the acting party secretary for information, culture, and communication, Santo Malek Anei, said the party also urges the dismissed duo to change the names of their political organizations and not use the SPLM.
“Riek has already established his political organization which is known by the IO but again we urge him to rename his new political party IO, not SPLM-IO,” he said. “In the implementation of the peace agreement, the name will exist until the end of the transitional arrangement but otherwise we will ask him to rename his child because he is not a member of the SPLM anymore.”
Anei also advised Pagan Amum to change the name of his political organization.
“The same case to Pagan Amum our former Secretary General. He has already formed his political organization which is known by the Real SPLM and he should also go by Real but not Real SPLM,” he said. “For those who want to follow them, it is their absolute right to go.”
According to Anei, the part’s NLC meeting which was supposed to take place on Wednesday had been postponed to Friday and Saturday as the party’s chairperson has prior engagements including attending the Governors’ Forum.
He also said the members of the Political Bureau have also been increased from the initial 17 to 35 members as part of the resolution of Wednesday’s meeting.
First Vice President Machar, who leads the opposition SPLM-IO was the deputy chairman of the SPLM party, while Pagan Amum, a prominent opposition figure in exile, was the Secretary-General. They were also both members of the SPLM party’s central organ, the National Liberation Council (NLC).
The SPLM is the governing party in South Sudan and was initially founded as the political wing of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). The party fractured into different groups after the civil war erupted in December 2013.