January 24th 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – A senior opposition official allied to South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA) faction led by Gen. Peter Gatdet Yaka said on Thursday that his group will only accept compromise that maintain Gatdet in power as the leader of SSOA in solving the ongoing rifts within the alliance.
The opposition umbrella, SSOA, split in November last year following conduct of elections that resulted into the selection of Gen. Peter Gatdet Yaka as the new SSOA Chairman to succeed Changson Chang, then Chairperson.
In an exclusive interview with the Nyamilepedia on Thursday, Mut Turuk, the official spokesman of the National Democratic Movement (NDM) led by Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin, said the SSOA faction led by Gatdet will not accept other than the compromise that maintain Gatdet in power.
“The solution has to be a compromise that will uphold the result of the elections such that we don’t set a bad precedent for rejecting elections results whenever an opponent wins,” he told the Nyamilepedia on Thursday saying they will not accept any solution that will see Gatdet leaving the helm.
“That is not true. Gadet is a leader of one of the SSOA members and as such he is qualify to run for any office in SSOA,” he added.
He denied allegations that Akol is behind the split in the SSOA saying Gatdet’s rivals are using this narration because they underestimate Gatdet’s capacity to lead the alliance.
“Dr Lam is not the one behind Gadet. They just wanted to belittle Gatdet’s leadership to justify their rejection of the elections result,” he said.
He said Akol’s support for Gatdet is in compliance to the alliance’s charter saying Akol is doing so in order to not set a bad precedent for the alliance which may undermine the alliance refutation as a democratic movement.
“It is all about SSOA Charter and its rules. If we say let’s accept the theory of rejecting the elections, this means SSOA has no any democratic foundation of governance within itself and as such the credibility of SSOA as a political organization will be doubted by the people of South,” he added.
“Democracy has consequences when it is being practised and what had happened in 30 November 2018 was a result of such exercise,” he added.
