The five-day Upper Nile regional dialogue conference ended on Saturday with delegates supporting, among others, the current 32 states created by President Salva Kiir.
The dialogue conference took place in the capital Juba, weeks after it was relocated from Malakal city over the lack of conference facilities.
At least 200 delegates from 33 counties of the former states of the Upper Nile region, plus the former Pibor Administrative Area, attended the conference, which took place from May 20-25.
The forum, according to a communiqué issued on Saturday, also supported Abyei Administrative Area and recommended that more states be created to meet the legitimate aspirations of the people.
The conference further endorsed a presidential system of government as opposed to a parliamentary system, recommending appropriate limitations on presidential powers over the states and also proposing two consecutive five-year term limits for the president.
Meanwhile, delegates at the conference called for immediate end to all forms of hostilities in the country and urged all armed groups to end violence and seek peaceful means to address their grievances.
The conference also “calls for professionalization and unification of the national army through comprehensive security sector reforms in which all the tribes are represented proportionately”.
In December 2016, South Sudan President Salva Kiir launched the national dialogue initiative that seeks to reconcile and unite the East African nation torn apart by more than five years of a bloody civil war.