The main opposition group in South Sudan has declared the Presidency meeting illegitimate and rejected its key decision to rule out any further extension of the transitional period, calling it a non-inclusive gathering.
On Friday, the Minister of Presidential Affairs, Africano Mande Gedima, stated that the Presidency and senior leadership of the parties signatory to the 2018 peace agreement had agreed elections must be held by December 2026. The meeting was also attended by a faction of the opposition SPLM-IO, created in April 2025 and led by Peacebuilding Minister Stephen Par Kuol.
The resolution followed a high-level meeting on Wednesday, chaired by President Salva Kiir and attended by the country’s four vice presidents. That meeting resolved to amend key provisions of the 2018 peace agreement, moving processes such as constitution-making, a population census, and institutional reforms beyond the election date to enable the polls to proceed as scheduled.
However, the opposition SPLM-IO, loyal to suspended First Vice President Dr Riek Machar, has issued a strong rebuttal. In a Friday statement seen by Radio Tamazuj, the group’s Political Bureau asserted that the high-level meeting “lacked inclusivity” and that its resolutions were therefore not binding.
The SPLM-IO statement, signed by its focal point in Juba, Eng. Joseph Malwal Dong, emphasised that Dr Machar—who remains the group’s chairman and commander-in-chief—was excluded from the meeting while under house arrest and on trial over the Nasir incident.
It further clarified that, despite the attendance of other parties to the 2018 peace deal, no leaders from the mainstream SPLM-IO were invited.
The group, a key signatory to the peace agreement, also objected to the composition of the High-Level Standing Committee for implementing the deal. The SPLM-IO claims the body was “reconstituted by President Kiir immediately after the arrest of Dr Machar in March to purge it” of the group’s members, leaving them without representation.
The statement declared that the Revitalised Peace Agreement could not be amended “without the participation and consent of the SPLM-IO” as a major signatory. It went further, alleging that the current push to amend the peace deal “has nothing to do with the upcoming elections,” but is instead part of a “grand strategy to dismantle the agreement.”
Consequently, the SPLM-IO said it formally “distances itself from the resolutions” of Wednesday’s meeting and the declaration made by the presidency.
The political transition, established by the 2018 peace deal, remains stalled, with key provisions unfulfilled and the working relationship between President Kiir and his rival Machar still deeply strained.
Outstanding provisions include the unification of forces, the formulation of a permanent constitution, a population census, the repatriation of refugees, institutional reforms, and election preparations.
In September 2024, the parties to the peace agreement agreed to postpone long-awaited elections from December 2024 to December 2026, extending once again the transitional period established by the 2018 agreement.