More than 60 members of different political parties in Western Bahr el Ghazal State are attending a two-day political parties forum in Wau, organized by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC).
Speaking during the opening ceremony on Wednesday, the UNMISS state coordinator, Sam Mamure said the forum aims at creating a space for political parties to engage in political activities in the state.
“The purpose of the workshop is for the political party leaders to dialogue and agree on some of the principles and ethics that they have to follow in running their political parties business,” said Mamure. “This workshop will enable them to discuss some of the internal challenges they are facing, it’s policy development, it’s on resources mobilization, it’s on the mobilization of communities, they will have an opportunity to dialogue with each other because all are in the business of trying to offer leadership to their people.”
Marko Dominic Mandil of the National Movement for Change said the forum has created a safe space for parties to openly interact.
“This forum, I look at it like an opportunity for other parties to know each other because sometimes, other political parties are denied access on the ground but today shows that there are many parties in Western Bahr el Ghazal here,” he said.
Viola Alexander from the SPLM ruling party said she expects the parties to learn to dialogue, unite and work together for the welfare of the citizens.
“I expect in today’s dialogue that we have to learn a culture of dialogue among ourselves as political parties. Instead, we have created rivals which we did not expect because we belong to this state. Let us not beat ourselves by creating lies against ourselves,” she said.
Meanwhile, the state coordinator for Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) Stephen Robo said: “We are at a very critical movement where we need to the active role of political parties who have the mindset for peace and dialogue to promote the social coexistence among the community during this transitional period ahead of elections,” said Robo. “At the moment, there is no engagement between political parties and this can lead to conflict and violence.”