Machar ally says no elections with ‘one-sided’ army, national security service

JUBA – A top member of South Sudan’s main armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) led by First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny has reiterated the group’s readiness for elections, but then said there shouldn’t be elections until the unification of the security sector is completed.

This comes after President Salva Kiir Mayardit said in a speech to the Jieng Council of Elders last Sunday that elections are going to take place in 2023 as planned despite what the politicians, including First Vice President Machar, say.

Machar and Vice-President for Gender and Youth Cluster had stated their disapproval of elections before the competition of the security arrangements which would allow the parties to unify their forces and form a united security sector, and also the return of refugees.

“The people will decide, and it is on this basis that the elections will take place despite or regardless of what politicians say. For them, this is what is in the agreement, elections should be held at the end of the transitional period. This is why there are arrangements and the reason I keep asking others to start the screening process of their forces so that there is a unified command and forces to allow necessary arrangements as stipulated in the agreement to be met,” Kiir said this week.

“I have not seen the report because the conference is still ongoing, but I have heard what others said. What they are citing as the reasons which could affect other arrangements, including the conduct of elections, are the issues that can be resolved and that is the reason this conference was convened,” he stressed.

“It is to allow all the leaders, all the governors,   relevant ministers, institutions and mechanisms in the peace agreement, vice presidents, advisers, and all the stakeholders to come up with ideas that could be used to address the challenges being faced in the implementation of the peace agreement. So, regardless of what Machar and others say, elections will happen,” the South Sudanese leader concluded.

But speaking to Sudans Post in an exclusive interview this morning, Dut Majokdit, a senior member of the main armed Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO), said reports on social media that the group is not for election are wrong, but then said it cannot go to elections with what he called a one-sided army.

“In response to those allegations on social media that SPLM-IO doesn’t want elections to be held, I can say that it is false. The Parties to the Peace Agreement should hold elections if all the Provisions of the Agreement are implemented,” Majokdit told Sudans Post in Juba this morning.

“You cannot go to elections with one sided army and the one-sided National Security Service, Police or whatever organized forces in the country. We have to unified the army, bring our refugees and internal displaced persons back to resettled and these are provisions in the agreement. So we just want the peace agreement to be implemented so that elections are held,” he said.

He said the revitalized peace agreement signed in 2018 by President Salva Kiir Mayardit and First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny provides for the implementation of all its provisions before the country can go for elections to avoid another chaotic situation.

“It’s very clear in the peace agreement that elections shall be held when all the provisions of the peace deal are implemented as outlined in the document. The Parties are still on Chapter one of the peace agreement, for example the independent Commissions and the institutions created by the peace agreement at the national level are not reconstituted,” he said.

“The unification of the forces, the most critical part of the agreement, has not yet been created, how can you talk of elections when you have not completed arranging the institution that will guarantee peace? The people of South Sudan want peace and stability so that they should choose their leaders at the end of the transitional period,” he added.