Makuei warns against postponing 2023 elections
The Minister of Information, Michael Makuei Lueth, has said the postponement of elections is draining the citizens and they are tired of it.
Makuei concurred with the sentiments of President Salva Kiir that the election should be conducted at the end of the transitional period in 2023 to allow South Sudanese to exercise their democratic rights.
“I am in support of the President of the Republic of Salva Kiir Mayardit’s decision to hold an election by the end of the current transitional period. However, political will is required from the parties signatories to the 2018 peace deal,” the statement from Makuei’s office read.
“People of South Sudan are tired of adjournment. The people of South Sudan should exercise their democratic rights through the ballot box,” he said.
Unification and constitution
However, the idea of having a poll in the New Year does not settle well with other parties to the peace agreement. The official spokesperson of the South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA), Brig. Gen. Samuel Shan, told The City Review that the country might not run free and fair elections if forces were not unified.
“The unification of forces is very important. Once we conduct elections when these forces are still under the commanders-in-chief of their respective parties, I think that would not be a peaceful election at the end,” Brig. Gen. Shan warned.
He farther warned that if parties rush with the graduation forces without unification of command, the country might return to war after the elections since each party would still have key command of their respective forces.
“Because, any person who may lose may not accept the defeat because they have trained forces and they have arms, I think it will turn us back to the circle that we are in now.”
He stressed that the country needed a permanent constitution for elections to be successful.
Endless delays
Prof Abednego Akok, the chairperson of the National Electoral Commission, stated last month that the main factor delaying elections was the amendment to the Election Act of 2012.
He said time was running out for elections to be conducted in December 2022, which he said was the right time, two months before the end of the transitional period in February 2023.
“Until now the election framework which is the act has not been amended by the current parliament. It should be sent to the national assembly, to be passed as a law because the R-ARCSS recommended some areas to be amended before sixty days could come nearer. ‘‘So, our concern as technical people is to concentrate on these metrics of 36 months of the peace agreement,” Prof Akok said.
He proceeded to say: ‘‘These 36 months, 34 will finish in December this year. And then the peace agreement states, “60 days before the end of the peace agreement, the election must be conducted.”
The electoral commission boss said they had played a pivotal role by sending recommendations to the R-JMEC to forward them to the ministry of justice, to the council of ministers and then to the parliament for deliberations and approval but it had not yielded fruits.
“Now there are very important issues to be considered before running for elections. Number one is the amendment of the election act 2012, to suit the peace terms.
‘‘We have done our part as a commission. We made some suggestions and sent them to JMEC, JMEC will send them to the ministry of justice and from there to the council of ministers and will proceed to the assembly for final approval and this has not been done so far,” he explained.
Prof. Akok said that it was upon the parties to the agreement to sit down and discuss whether elections should be conducted or postponed.
“This has not been done. And above all the constitution amendments, which have been recommended, it is also under process. If there is a political will, with the stakeholders of the commission, I mean the political parties, the executive, the legislatures, civil society and the media, if they have a political will, they can do anything to enable us to take over to run the election.”
Old census preferred
The chairperson of the electoral commission, Prof Akok urged parties to the agreement to respect and implement the peace agreement in letter and spirit, to pave the way for elections.
“The advice is that the parties to the agreement should respect the Revitalised Peace Agreement, all of us. If we respect it, then we implement it and follow it, then we will be able to conduct free, fair, and inclusive elections. So, it is a situation to be handled through consultation and with reference to the revitalised peace agreement. “
He noted that the parties to the agreement might decide to use the 2008 census if they wish, so that elections could be conducted as time for the census was limited.
“What you need to know is the will of the political parties, the government has extended the transitional period three times.
‘‘And it is also possible with the political decision-makers, they can extend this provided that it is agreeable based on the Revitalised Peace Agreement,” he said.
In an interview with The City Review, Eng Mayen Deng Alier of OPP dismissed this statement, saying it could not be possible because the census was not a mere counting but more of assessing the livelihoods of the people being counted and where they are settled.
The SPLM Interim Secretary-General, Peter Lam, suggested that the 2008 census should be used to conduct elections while carrying out campaigns in Magwi. The top SPLM members endorsed President Kiir as the candidate for the 2023 elections, and the chairperson of the SPLM convention.
Divergent views
Two weeks ago, a lawmaker in the Reconstituted Transitional National Legislative Assembly (R-TNLA), Mayen Deng Alier, from the Other Opposition Parties (OPP) cautioned that an election might not be possible if the South Sudanese refugees and those in the neighbouring countries are not accorded a dignified return.
Mayen stressed that the dignified return means being granted the same statuses they were in, at the time the war broke out.
He added that the permanent constitution could not be made without them for it to be inclusive.
“First, there should be dignified repatriation of those who have been displaced by this war. “Dignified repatriation” means that they should be given the same status that they were in before the war. For example, if you were in Kajo Keji then you should come back and have the same kind of settlement like what you had before you were displaced when you were in Kajo Keji.”
He argued that the end of the transitional period was not meant for elections but set for the chapters of the peace agreement to be implemented and that, elections could only take place after the agreement was fully implemented.
“The timeline for elections is not correspond to the end of the agreement, what is there in the agreement is this, the three years given were given for us to implement some things within the matrix of the agreement. And all these things are in stages. So, the end of the transitional period is not the election. The end of the transitional period is the fulfilment of what is written in the revitalised agreement, “argued Mayen.
The repatriation of the refugees and allotting them lands as well as supporting them with various sources of livelihood is viewed as something that cannot happen within the remaining time for the end of the transitional period which is already less than a year.
It needs adequate resources, which the current financial drain the country is going through might not be able to afford with all its costs.
However, the idea goes in line with the demand by the SPLM/A-IO that the election should not be rushed until the peace agreement is fully put into force by the parties to the agreement.
Puok Both Baluang, the SPLM/A-IO Director for Information and Public Relations, earlier said that their party was ready for elections if all the prerequisites are sorted out before rushing to elections.
He said elections should not be carried out through the window.
“All the parties have the right to freedom of expression by doing what they think is important for them. We as the SPLM/A-IO, prefer that all these prerequisites must be in place before involving in conducting the election,” he said.
