Three ministries from different clusters have been allocated to the South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA) in the unity government, a top opposition official said Monday.

The peace agreement gives the opposition alliance one vice president position, three ministerial portfolios, one deputy minister position and 50 seats in the national assembly.

 “We have already concluded the selection of our ministries as SSOA. What is left now is the issue of one governorship position for SSOA,” Joseph Bangasi Bakosoro, a leading member of the opposition alliance, told Radio Tamazuj.

“The previous government said it would make consultations on which state will go to SSOA. So, the government will assign one state to SSOA,” he added.

Mr. Bakosoro, who is also the leader of the opposition South Sudan National Movement for Change (SSNMC), declined to reveal the ministries selected by his group.

“I can just say we had selected one ministry from Governance Cluster, one ministry from Economic Cluster and one ministry from Services Cluster. Our deputy minister will be from Governance Cluster,” he explained.

According to Bakosoro, the opposition alliance has not yet discussed the issue of ministerial nominees. “The distribution of ministries and one governorship position among SSOA members is yet to be discussed,” he said.

The opposition official disclosed that they have agreed on the final list of MP nominees.

South Sudan’s political leaders on Saturday started the process of forming a coalition government, in line with the peace agreement reached in September 2018.

Opposition leader Riek Machar was sworn in as first vice president. Machar took the oath of office with four other vice presidents: James Wani Igga, Taban Deng Gai, Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior, and Hussein Abdelbagi Akol.

The transitional government of national unity is not yet finalized as ministers, deputy ministers and state governors are still to be named.