South Sudan’s Political Party`s Council (PPC) on Monday evening awarded certificates of registration to an additional 15 political parties, bringing the total of registered political parties in the country to 29.
Speaking during the ceremony, James Akol Zakayo, the PPC Chairperson, cautioned the political parties to exercise rights while being mindful of the law.
“As you go to exercise democracy, bear in mind the PPC’s role and mandate. Our role and the mandate of the council is to regulate you the political parties and we do not just give certificates,” he warned. “Some of you may go and sleep thinking that they have received certificates and not meet the requirement. The same certificate we have issued you, we shall withdraw it according to the law and if compliance procedures are not in place, we will deregister you.”
Akol warned the parties that the PPC will follow up on their registration information stressing that they should maintain good conduct.
“We shall go to states and verify all the information that you have given us and should there be a breach, then we shall all refer back to law. We want to see that the 35 percent of women representation is captured within your organization structure and we will not tolerate any miss or gross misconduct because we want you to exercise democracy,” he stated. “We want you to take this country out of its current path and it is through you that democracy can be realized. You go and read the regulations and download the Act from our website because there will be no room for excuse,”
Akol added: “We shall ask all the parties to provide their staff to be trained on the advanced registration system that we are currently trying to introduce.”
Reacting after receiving their registration certificate, Bona Deng Lawrence, the Chairperson of the United Democratic Front Party, expressed gratitude and said it has taken his party over 10 years to receive a registration certificate.
“It took us long to receive this certificate because we applied in 2015 and because the council was not complete, that is why we did not receive our certificate. Now that the council has been reconstituted and it is complete, they handed over the certificate to us,” he said. “It is more than 10 years since we applied and we have been waiting for this certificate so it is a great day for us the United Democratic Front Party. It is also a great day for our supporters across the country because the people of South Sudan want to see democracy in place and this is a step forward for multiparty politics in the country.”
For his part, Juma Said Worju, the Chairperson of the South Sudan National Party, said the issuance of the certificate will give them morale to kick-start activities.
“We are ever ready to proceed with the politics of this country when there is a suitable condition because sometimes we face a lot of problems like insecurity. So, we are calling on the people of South Sudan to come together to end the war and we as parties are supposed to participate intensively in enlightening our people about the importance of peace,” he stated. “Issuing this certificate to us will give us more morale to go ahead because, without the certificate, you cannot exercise anything.”