The acting secretary-general of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) has ordered party leaders in Eastern Equatoria State to register members for the elections stipulated in the revitalized peace agreement and scheduled for early next year.
Peter Lam Both made the call during an SPLM rally at Torit’s freedom square on Saturday where he urged the youth to actively participate in the election process.
“To all the youth in Torit, Eastern Equatoria, we need peace in our nation and everybody should co-exist peacefully with one another,” Both said. “We do not need any conflict again in South Sudan after we all signed the peace agreement and after the implementation of the peace accord.”
“I want to tell the youth of Torit that you are lucky because you are living in the center of the liberation struggle, a center where the liberation struggle started,” he added.
Gen. Louis Lobong Lojore, the chairperson of the SPLM in Eastern Equatoria State, who also doubles as the state governor, said the people had suffered enough and revealed that his party was ready for the general elections.
“We do not want our people to suffer again. We want the people to choose their leaders through elections and before that we want people to be counted through a census,” Governor Lobong said. “We also do not want a very big parliament which will waste public money but rather a lean government.”
During the rally, the market and shops were closed to force people to attend the rally but attendance was still low.
Last Tuesday, the SPLM sent an advance team to Torit ahead of the acting secretary general’s visit. Hundreds of the party members converged at the Fotur Mafi junction along Torit-Magwi-Juba highway to welcome the delegation.
The civil society network in Torit welcomed the move by the SPLM party to prepare for the elections but questioned how it is going to happen before important tasks like the security arrangements, a permanent constitution, and the election law are not implemented.