A renowned civil society member has decried the South Sudanese government’s delay in the reconstitution of the Political Parties Council.
The Political Parties Act, 2012 (Amendment) Act, 2023 stipulates in Chapter 3 that there will be a Political Parties Council which shall among other things, register, monitor, regulate, and de-register political parties.
The other functions of the Council are to issue certificates of registration to political parties, indicate in the register that changes have taken place within a political party, maintain records of registered political parties, and administer the Political Parties Fund.
General elections are slated to take place in December 2024.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Saturday, Edmund Yakani, Executive Director of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), revealed that nominations of the Council’s members had already been made and that the remaining steps were with the National Transitional Committee (NTC), a mechanism charged with overseeing the implementation of the 2018 peace agreement.
“The nominations included names for chairperson, deputy chairperson and seven members of the Council,” Yakani explained.
Yakani, who was involved in the consultation process, said: “The reasons for the delay in the reconstitution of the Council is well known to the presidency, but among the key reasons is lack of political commitment for timely reconstitution of the Council by the presidency.”
“This trend of dragging feet on the reconstitution of the Political Parties Council is a clear demonstration of deficit in trust and confidence among the parties,” he added.
When asked if the president may reconstitute the Council soon, the civil society activist said: “It is unpredictable but it will be better for the president to reconstitute the Council before 30th September 2023 or before the report of the UNMISS boss to the United Nations Security Council.”
Yakani appealed to the presidency to demonstrate a sense of political commitment for a successful political transition process through the timely and genuine implementation of the pending tasks of the peace roadmap.
“The delay in the constitution of the Political Parties Council is concrete evidence for limited political will and commitment from the presidency on the timely and genuine implementation of the pending tasks,” he said.