Nairobi The holdout group led by Paul Malong -South Sudan United Front (SSUF) has declined president Salva Kiir’s invitation to participate in the coming general elections in December this year.
The movement’s spokesperson Garang Malual Deng said Kiir’s invitation is ‘unfortunate’ because election is not in their program.
“The government in Juba is confused because last week, they requested Kenyan president to mediate between us and again they are calling us to go and participate in the election,” Garang said. “Which one now is the important thing to be done first?”
On Christmas’ Eve, the minister of Presidential Affairs, Joseph Bakasoro said president Kiir has written to Kenyan president Dr. William Samoei Ruto asking him to mediate a peace talk between the government and the holdout groups.
“The peace process in Sant Egidio has been long. So, the president decided to shift it to Kenya. We are shifting it to Kenya to see whether it will take short time this time,” Bakasoro told The Radio Community.
Later in his new year’s message, president Kiir extended invitation to the holdout groups to come home and participate in election.
“I call upon the opposition forces, especially the hold out groups who are fighting against the Government to lay down their arms and return home and exercise their democratic rights in the upcoming general Elections,” Kiir’s new year’s message partly reads.
The opposition group called the two messages a ‘Confusion’ given the timeframe they are delivered.
“They are blanketly calling us to go to Juba and join them in election. Which election? We need to have an agreement first before we can talk of elections,” Garang stated. “On our side, we are ready for Kenya to mediate between us and the government. That’s all we know.”
“The election issue is not in our program. Even when we are going to meet next time, we will not have election case on the table. So, the invitation is unfortunate,” he emphasized.
Since 2020, the government of South Sudan has been in a peace negotiation known as Rome Declaration with the holdout groups -a coalition of opposition parties who did not sign the 2018 peace agreement, but no peace deal has yet been reached in the three years’ peace talks.
South Sudan is expected to hold its first ever general elections on December 22nd this year since the country gained independence from Sudan on July 9, 2011.
