South Sudan’s National Alliance of opposition parties has accused Salva Kiir's SPLM faction of delaying the formation of the transitional parliament by trying to amend the list of nominees of political parties to the parliament.

Chapter 1, Article 11.1 of the peace agreement provides for the formation of transitional national legislative assembly comprising 400 members, including the prior 332 members and additional 50 members from SPLM-IO, 1 member from SPLM-FD, and 17 from other political parties.

Kornelio Kon, deputy chairperson of the National Alliance, told Radio Tamazuj that the presidency is currently trying to include other members of political parties affiliated to the government, which he said is a clear violation to the peace agreement.

He further said membership of their group was approved by the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC), stressing that the signed peace agreement is the only reference.

“Parties of the national agenda believe that President Salva Kiir has already signed on their behalf, so they refused to sign the agreement, they think that their stakeholder is the government,” said Kornelio.

For his part, Ateny Wek Ateny, South Sudan’s Presidential spokesman, said there are several issues that delayed the formation of the transitional parliament.

He further said some political parties do not exist on the ground and that they are not registered with the Political Parties Council in South Sudan.

Ateny explained that some political parties nominated to the parliament also raised a complaint against some of their nominees included in the list, saying they were not their members.

Cabinet Affairs Minister Martin Elia Lomuro had criticized the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC) for excluding members of his 'national agenda' group from the transitional parliament.