The chairperson of the National Alliance of Political Parties, a grouping that started with ten entities that signed the 2018 peace agreement, on Thursday dismissed four political parties from the coalition.
A crisis emerged in the Alliance earlier this month when seven out of the ten parties in the group declared that they had ousted the group`s leader, Kornelio Kon Ngu, who is also a Deputy Speaker in the National Legislature, accusing him of violating the good conduct of business regulations of the National Alliance of Political Parties and that he had overstayed in the chairman’s office since 2016.
Subsequently, the embattled Kon issued an order suspending four political parties, the Communist Party of South Sudan (CPSS), the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), and the South Sudan National Party (SSNP) from the group.
In a turn of events on Wednesday evening, Kon issued an order dismissing the four parties from the alliance.
“I Kornelio Kon Ngu, the Chairperson of the National Alliance Political Parties, do hereby issue this loss membership order for the dismissal of CPSS, DUP, NDA, and SSNP from the National Alliance and shall come into force with immediate effect,” the order reads in part.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Thursday morning, Richard Omwony Valent, the Secretary General of the National Alliance faction allied to Kon, confirmed the dismissal of the four parties, saying the group opted to form their alliance.
“These people have decided to hold a press conference and then they decided to withdraw from the National Alliance. After they decided to withdraw, they went and formed their coalition,” he explained. “We made a public statement and then we formed an investigation committee which called them but they did not turn up for the meeting. We then called them for a meeting of the Political Bureau but they did not turn up.”
According to Omwony, the dismissal of the four parties is per the Alliance’s Conduct of Business articles B, C, and D, and the dismissed parties are free to go and perform their normal party activities but not as part of the Alliance.
“If you are not a member of the National Alliance, you do not deserve the seat and Alliance takes their seat back because you violated the code of conduct and you have to go back to your parties,” he added.
Responding to their dismissal, Joseph Wol Modesto, the chairperson of the Communist Party of South Sudan (CPSS), contended their dismissal as invalid and stated that they do not recognize Kon as the leader of the National Alliance.
“We do not recognize him as our leader and this position which we have taken complied with what the advisor of the president on security affairs gave us. Now, this is from somebody very important and who is holding the implementation of the revitalized agreement and the roadmap under his hand,” he stressed. “This letter’s position which says that we are now no longer members of the National Alliance is not correct because we do not recognize him (Kon), so, he is just somebody who is talking without knowing what he is doing. We consider him as somebody crying without any reason.”
Wol added: “What we know is very clear is that he (Kon) is no longer our chairperson and we have more members of the parties of the National Alliance than his because we know that he has only three members and the rest of them (parties) have problems and this can be proved by the Political Parties Council.”