South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit, who is also the chairman of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) party, issued a directive on Wednesday urging party members to ready themselves for the upcoming elections.
Kiir who was speaking at the swearing-in ceremony of newly appointed SPLM national advisors, secretaries, and deputy secretaries, also issued a stern warning to his political rivals not to take up arms in the event they are defeated in the polls slated for December 2024.
“We are going for elections and you should prepare yourselves. If we go for elections and you fail, do not look back,” he said. “There is nothing left behind unless you want to run to the bush and you have to look for the person who will go with you to the bush. Nobody will follow you to the bush again.”
The president affirmed the SPLM’s commitment to the electoral process and ruled out any possibility of extending the transitional government.
“There are people who said there are no elections. There is nobody who is more tired than me. I have five deputy vice presidents and there is no country which has five vice presidents,” Kiir said. “If my deputies are the ones who go and encourage people who talk about no elections, I can tell them that there is no extension of the agreement or roadmap.”
In response to President Kiir’s directive, Peter Lam Bol, the SPLM party Secretary General, emphasized that no political party had the right to obstruct the scheduled elections in December 2024.
“Comrade Chairman, it is clear, as you have said, we are for elections and not for extension. We must go for those elections and any political party has the legal right to boycott elections,” he said. “But they have no right to stop and suspend an election. We believe in the SPLM and in the next two to three months, we will fully implement the prerequisites for the conduct of elections.”