The troika says that the responsibility for the fact that the conditions for elections are not met “lies with all the parties in the transitional government”
September 22 (EUROPA PRESS) –
South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has signed into law an amendment to the 2011 constitution to extend the transition period opened by two years following the signing of the 2018 peace agreement between him and the main rebel leader and current First Vice President of the African country, Riek Machar, a move criticized by the international community.
The South Sudanese Presidency said in a statement posted on its Facebook account that Kiir “has officially signed the 12th amendment to the 2021 Transitional Constitution, extending the transition period for a period of two years.” “The amendment was unanimously ratified on Friday by the National Assembly during an extraordinary session,” it said.
The Speaker of the South Sudanese Parliament, Jemma Nunu Kumba, stressed that the extension aims to “allow the Government to complete the essential pending tasks provided for in the peace agreement and to adequately prepare for the democratic elections scheduled for December 2026.”
The troika made up of the United States, the United Kingdom and Norway has issued a statement expressing its “deep concern” about the new extension of the transition period and stressing that it “demonstrates the persistent and collective failure of South Sudan’s leaders to create the conditions necessary to hold credible and peaceful elections, in line with the established and publicly agreed timetable.”
“The responsibility for this failure lies with all parties in the transitional government. As South Sudan’s leaders struggle for power and fail to organise credible and peaceful elections, the people of South Sudan are suffering the consequences,” he said, adding that “millions of people face severe food insecurity year after year.”
“We recognise that it is not credible to hold elections in December, as planned,” he stressed, before stressing that “this is due to leadership errors and a lack of political will in South Sudan.” “However, we cannot, in good conscience, support the prolongation of a ‘status quo’ that prioritises the privileges of the elite over the well-being of the people of South Sudan,” he argued.
“URGENT” ACTIONS TO PAVE THE WAY FOR ELECTIONS
The UN has therefore called on the transitional authorities to act “urgently” to “demonstrably create the conditions necessary for credible and peaceful elections”, including “the expansion of political and civic space”, the establishment of “politically neutral security forces” and “funded and operational electoral institutions”.
The troika for South Sudan has also called on South Sudanese leaders to make a “public commitment to dialogue and reject violence as a tool for political competition.” “We urge South Sudanese leaders to work towards sustainable peace, in particular through the Tumaini Initiative in Nairobi and a comprehensive dialogue in Juba,” it said.
Finally, the three countries stressed that “it is also essential that the voices of women and young people are heard.” “The troika remains committed to the people of South Sudan on their journey towards a democratic future free of conflict,” they stressed.
On Saturday, the head of the United Nations mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), Nicholas Haysom, stressed that “peace can only be achieved or sustained when there is political will, common purpose and shared aspirations.” “In my view, South Sudan still has to work to develop those shared ambitions in order to safeguard those collective aspirations,” he said.
“While this means that the people of this country are once again being asked to show patience as they await the long-promised goals of peace and democracy, this development recognises the risk of renewed conflict and the political vacuum caused as a result of the lack of electoral preparations,” he warned.
However, he added that the situation “also provides more opportunities for nation-building.” “We recognize that the mountain that remains to be climbed is steep. Urgency is required, not a pause,” he added, according to a statement published by UNMISS on its website.
DELAYS IN THE TRANSITION
The clauses of the original 2018 peace agreement with some of the armed groups are not being fully complied with and the new round of negotiations that began in Kenya on May 9 with the rest of the organizations, the so-called Tumani (Hope) Initiative, was rejected by Machar, who believes that it contradicts certain terms of the agreement reached six years ago.
Above all, there is the question that the new peace initiative in Nairobi envisages the creation of a new executive body, the so-called National Leadership Council, with enormous powers, which could constitute an obstacle to the current structure of government and parliament, defined by the 2018 agreement.
The initiative also considers the creation of a new security body, the Joint Defence Board, independent of the Ministry of Defence, and a new body dedicated to collecting foreign aid, which could “end up leaving the country in the hands of external agents”, which has made it unlikely that elections, scheduled for December of this year, would be held.
Kiir himself warned in July that any delay in the elections could mean a new ignition of the civil war. “In Europe and America there are those who believe that if we hold the elections when they are due the conflict will break out again, but I can guarantee that what would really provoke war is a possible postponement,” he said.
Despite a decline in violence due to political conflict in recent years, the African country has seen an increase in inter-community clashes, mainly caused by cattle rustling and disputes between herders and farmers in the most fertile areas of the country, especially due to increasing desertification and population displacement.
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