Kiir is ‘the only presumptive’ winner of South Sudan’s next election – VP Taban

JUBA – South Sudan Vice-President Taban Deng Gai has said that ‘there is no doubt’ that President Salva Kiir Mayardit is the presumptive winner of the country’s elections due for end of the transitional period, claiming that against all odds, the return of peace and other achievements by the South Sudanese head of states will dictate his stay in power.

“Currently, there is no doubt that we only have the one and only person who will easily win the election in 2023 or when that election is conducted,” Taban told Churchgoers last Sunday. “It is clear that Kiir is the presumptive winner of our next election and I will tell you why.”

Taban who was the country’s first vice president until January 2020 said despite the current suffering and ethnic violence across the country, there are a lot of achievement that will dictate ‘the fact’ that President Kiir will remain in power against claims that Kiir has lost his popularity since the onset of the bloody conflict that has displaced more than half of the country’s population.

“Many people are looking into the negative part of the leadership performance,” he said. “I am not saying that there has never been anything wrong in the political leadership in the country, but there are more to look into than the negative part of the leadership’s performance.”

“The people of South Sudan today are not the same when the war broke out. They have understood what it takes to achieve all the aspirations of the people of South Sudan. Peace has returned and Salva is the winner against all political odds in this country,” Taban added.

The remarks by the vice-president comes weeks after officials said he had asked President Salva Kiir to remove him following disagreements over the replacement of lawmakers allied to him by President Salva Kiir Mayardit.

There has also been report that Kiir has snubbed several meetings set forth with the vice-president that would potentially discuss Taban’s grievances one of which was the future of the former SPLM-IO (Taban) lawmakers in the transitional parliament.