March 24th 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – The South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA), led by Gabriel Changson Chang, and the SPLM-Former Detainees (FDs), led by former SPLM Secretary-General Pagan Amum Okiech, have submitted their nominees to vice-president positions, a senior gov’t official told the Nyamilepedia on Sunday.
Under article 1.5 of South Sudan’s revitalized peace agreement, the signatories to the peace agreement (Incumbent TGONU, SPLM-IO, SSOA, FDs) shall form a presidency composed of a president with five deputies. These would be the First Vice President, and four vice-presidents.
SPLM-IO leader, Dr. Riek Machar Teny, will be reinstated to the First Vice President position he held prior to renewal of war in July 2016. The other vice presidents will come from the government, which will have 2, SSOA which will have 1 and the last one would come from FDs.
Speaking to the Nyamilepedia on Sunday from the South Sudan capital Juba, a government source who claim to be familiar with the issue claimed that SSOA and FDs have both submitted their nominees for the two vice-president positions.
He revealed that the FDs have nominated Rebecca Garang as the vice-president designate for them which the agreement said must be a woman, but refused to identify the nominee of SSOA because of ongoing rifts within the opposition umbrella.
“Rebecca Garang is the FDs nominee to the position of vice-president. But I cannot tell you the name of the [nominee] that was submitted by the SSOA because we do not want to cause fire as you are familiar with the disagreement that is within SSOA now,” the source told the Nyamilepedia on the condition of anonymity.
