South Sudan's leader Salva Kiir will stay in power during the upcoming transitional period, despite mounting calls for him to stand down now, his spokesman said.

Presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny told Radio Tamazuj from Aweil town on Sunday that Kiir will lead the transitional unity government before he could run for the planned elections.

He pointed out the country’s president was not ready for a transfer of power now. “Should there be a peace agreement signed in Addis Ababa through the revitalization process, then they will go for another interim period of 34 months,” Ateny said.

“The interim will keep the president as the leader of the interim, and when the transitional period comes to an end, the president will go for elections,” he said.

“You cannot tell the incumbent to leave power before he organizes things and makes things better. He will have a term that will allow him for the exit later on.”

Kiir, whose tenure will expire in August this year, has recently said he would not leave power despite mounting calls for him to quit.

 Former Ethiopian prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn on Saturday called on South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir to resign and hand over power to new young leadership.

Desalegn resigned in February this year in a surprise move that came after protracted anti-government protests.

"Immediately after my resignation, I asked them, please would you resign because you failed to resolve the problem in South Sudan?" Desaleng said in his remarks at The Ibrahim Forum held by MO Ibrahim Foundation in Rwanda over the weekend.