S. Sudan presidency rejects National Dialogue’s call for end to Kiir-Machar era

JUBA – South Sudan’s presidency has on Friday rejected a National Dialogue report calling for President Salva Kiir Mayardit and Dr. Riek Machar Teny to leave politics starting from next elections due at the end of the country’s transitional period.

On Thursday, the National Dialogue, a peace body formed by President Salva Kiir himself in 2016, released a report blaming the conflict on Kiir and Machar saying the two men cannot work together, but fight when they are not in the same government.

“There are only two safe exits out of this dilemma; that both President Kiir Mayardit, and Dr. Riek Machar must not take part in the elections, especially if they ran against one another,” National Dialogue’s final report said yesterday.

However, Presidential press secretary, Ateny Wek Ateny, said the National Dialogue does not have a legal basis to call for end to Kiir-Machar political era, saying the only supreme law of the land is the revitalized peace agreement.

“National dialogue does not have the mandate to ask President Salva Kiir and Dr. Riek not to continue as leaders in this country,” Ateny was quoted by the Eye Radio as saying.

The senior presidential aide further claimed that the report was against the revitalized peace agreement, a call that was previously raised by the main armed opposition group, SPLM-IO, which said the National dialogue is meant to substitute the revitalized peace deal.

“The revitalized peace agreement is the supreme law in the country because it mandates that if there are provisions of the constitution that contradict the agreement, then those provisions would be deemed to have been null and void so that the provisions of the agreement prevail. It is the agreement that is the supreme law in the country,” Ateny said.

“Anything outside the revitalized peace agreement is outside the legal framework in the country, and therefore, it doesn’t have the force of law, so whoever asks President Kiir to step down is out of touch with the reality,” he added.

Ateny further said the “people writing those recommendations are out of touch with the reality of the revitalized peace agreement.”