JUBA, JUNE 9, 2023 (SUDANS POST) – South Sudan’s main armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) has called for full implementation of the revitalized peace agreement before the anticipated elections take place in 2024.
Speaking to Sudans Post on Friday, Goanar Gordon Yien, acting spokesperson of SPLM-IO leader and First Vice President Riek Machar Teny, warned against premature elections, and said there is need for critical tasks provided for in the deal to be implemented first to ensure a free and fair process.
“The parties shouldn’t talk about elections now, we should instead focus on the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement because we all don’t want premature elections and as such, there is need for certain prerequisites to be met before the election,” he said.
“For elections to take place, we must have the permanent constitution in place, we must repatriate the refugees for us to have people to vote in the elections because most of our citizens have been displaced by the conflict,” he added.
He said that other tasks such as census need to be carried out for the government to determine the number of the people who are going to vote, and also called for deployment of the Necessary Unified Forces to provide security during elections.
“You also need to have the census in order to determine the number of the people who will vote in the election because we cannot go to elections without census. You also need security to protect the voters and the vote, which is the unified forces. You need to graduate and deploy them,” he added.
Yien further said the call for full implementation of the peace agreement before the election is to avoid irregularities and election disputes and said the parties are obliged by the peace agreement to implement all the important tasks before end of the transitional period.
South Sudan is expected to go to elections in December next year.
This is according to the peace implementation roadmap that was agreed upon by the parties extending the country’s transitional period for at least 24 months.
