United States Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Africa, Sudan, and South Sudan Peter Lord reminded South Sudan’s political leaders of their obligation to organize credible and peaceful elections at the end of the transitional period in December this year.
Peter Lord visited South Sudan to advise political leaders about the urgent need to take the steps necessary to hold credible and peaceful elections in December and to reject violence as a tool for political competition.
The US official said failure to do so would be a collective failure for which those leaders would share responsibility.
“The United States’ support to the people of South Sudan began decades ago. It is based on our conviction that the people of this country deserve peace, human rights, democracy, and a government that is responsive to the needs of its citizens,” Lord assured.
In a statement extended to Golden Times on Wednesday 28, Lord said the US government continues to look for signs that South Sudan’s leaders share these values through the transparent use of public revenue to fund public needs and by protecting the population from violence.
“Beyond taking steps needed for credible and peaceful elections, the transitional government can demonstrate its alignment with these values through the transparent use of public revenue to fund public needs and by protecting its population from violence, including sexual and gender-based violence. Such steps will help demonstrate sincere support for peace. It is the responsibility of South Sudan’s leaders to provide nothing less to the people of South Sudan,” he added.
However, the Deputy Chairperson of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement In-Opposition (SPLM-IO), Oyet Nathaniel Pierino, who doubles as the first deputy speaker of parliament, opposed the conduct of elections without a permanent constitution.
Addressing a press conference in Juba on Friday, February 29, Oyet insisted that the permanent constitution is a necessity for credible and peaceful elections.
“A permanent constitution is a must as the agreement says it must come before [elections], whoever wants the permanent constitution to be enacted after the elections is planning to abrogate the agreement itself,” he warned.
He called for amendments to the transitional constitution to address issues like the number of states, land disputes, and the system of government, citing that the current transitional constitution is not suitable for conducting elections as it lacks electoral safeguarding clauses.
In a separate development, Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth, who is also the government’s official spokesperson, said the government is fully committed to conducting the conduct election in December 2024.
Makuei said the government has maintained peace and security across the country since the signing of the revitalized peace agreement six years ago, except for isolated communal violence in parts of the country.
“Despite the challenges relating to internal conflict and weak institutions, the government continues to make steady progress in the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement. The electoral and constitution-making bodies are restructured and reconstituted; the government is fully committed to taking the country for elections in December 2024 so that our people can elect the leaders of their choice,” Makuei affirmed.
Michael Makuei, who is representing the ruling party [SPLM] in the power-sharing government of national unity, said it was premature to tell about the type of election the government would conduct at the end of the transitional period.
A civil society activist whose name is withheld for security reasons cast doubt on the government’s ability to conduct credible, free, fair, and transparent elections even if the international community deploys observers to monitor the voting exercise.
The forty-five-year-old activist fears that the SPLM-led government would rig the election to keep the status quo and to keep protecting the suspects of human rights violations who are currently serving in the regime.
“It is obvious that in the end, a sham election will be conducted. The ruling clique may rig the election in fear of losing power,” the activist said. “They [the government] would shut down the internet and block the observers from accessing the polling stations. This is possible. I remember the same happened in 2010 and 2011 during the elections and referendum,” he added.
The revitalized peace agreement provides quite ambitiously and laudably for the creation of the Hybrid Court for South Sudan under the auspices of the African Union.
However, the political parties that signed the revitalized peace agreement skipped the implementation of Chapter V about transitional justice and setting up of a hybrid court to try the suspects of war crimes in South Sudan.
