SPLM Leaders: South Sudanese Negotiators Proposed A Deputized Prime Minister To Head The Transitional Government of National Unity, IGAD ignores!

Sept 03, 2014(Nyamilepedia) — South Sudan’s SPLM Leaders, who served months in jail, believe that the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) entirely ignored the document agreed by the multi-stakeholders, except the government delegation, in the latest round of South Sudan peace talks in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

According to SPLM/A leaders, majority of the stakeholders agreed on an African solution that was extracted from the African experiences, which resolved conflicts in Kenya, Cote d’Ivoire, Zimbabwe, among others, to resolve the eight-month-old civil war in the country.

The stakeholders, with exception of government delegation, agreed that the Prime Minister, with one or two deputies, would run the transitional Government of National Unity while the President remains the Head of State. However, the regional leaders proposed and signed a resolution that gives the president all powers and creates no deputy Prime Ministers positions.

The regional bloc creates a position of a Prime Minister that would not only be submissive but acceptable to the president and must hold no further public offices. Precisely, the Prime Minister, according to IGAD protocol, shall be nominated by the SPLM (IO) and retires from politics as soon as the transitional period ends.

To the SPLM leaders, IGAD’s proposal is neither an African solution to an African problem nor what the South Sudanese negotiators agreed on but rather an obstacle to achieving peace. The leaders reiterate that the decision was unfair, unjust and discriminatory.

The SPLM Leaders, argue that the rules in the Protocol have to equally apply to Salva Kiir and his deputy instead of attempting to exclude only Dr. Machar from power.

The report below is recorded to near verbatim.

Begin the reports …

• The Protocol has ignored the consensus reached by the stakeholders in the thematic committees formed by the IGAD Envoys. The Political Committee on transitional Governance Arrangements unanimously agreed on the formula for power sharing between the President and the Prime Minister during the Transitional Period. The power sharing formula prescribed by the committee on Governance is based on various experiences from Africa, i.e. Kenya, Zimbabwe, Cote d’Ivoire, in order to resolve similar cr. Details of the agreed power sharing arrangement are attached herewith.

• The Protocol confirmed President Kiir as both the Head of State and Government. The consensus of all stakeholders except the government delegation was for the Prime Minister to the Chief Executive in charge of the day to day running of the Government while the President performs the functions of Head of State. This arrangement is to stop the war and allow for a peaceful transition to a permanent and sustainable dispensation. The Protocol has ignored the consensus.

• The Protocol, while recognizing the role of the SPLM/A in Opposition to nominate the Prime Minister, nevertheless it gives the President the power to veto the nomination of the SPLM/A(IO). In other words the nominee of the SPLM/A(IO) must be acceptable to the president. This undermines the principle of Power Sharing and the choice of the Opposition.

• The Protocol bars any person nominated by the SPLM/A(IO) to the position of the Prime Minister from running for any public office in the next general elections. This condition does not apply to the President and the Vice President respectively. This condition is unfair, unjust and discriminatory. Persons occupying the top three positions in the transitional Government are either all excluded from running for any public office in the next elections or permitted all without exception.

• Most surprisingly, Dr. Riek Machar, the leader of the opposition SPLM/SPLA(IO) is completely excluded from the leadership of the transitional Government of National Unity, without giving him the option to participate or not. This position will not help the achievement of peace as it will be read as a defeat by the supporters of the SPLM/A (IO). It does not reflect a win-win solution.

• The Protocol has rejected the position of the stakeholders to have two deputies or at least one deputy to the Prime Minister. The position of the stakeholders was based on the tasks to be undertaken by the office of the Prime Minister as head of Government. We still think that the Prime Minister as head of government shall have two or one Deputy Prime Minister.

• Finally the Protocol was meant to capture the consensus of the stakeholders as is evident from the first paragraph of the preamble. Unfortunately, the leaders of the region took over the document and became the principal owners as well as guarantors of the document to the exclusion of the stakeholders.

• In the interest of just and enduring peace, we urge leaders of the region to consider the above observations in order to expedite resolution of the conflict in the upcoming session of the Talks scheduled for September 2014.

Signed by:

Deng Alor Kuol,

Leader of Delegation, SPLM Leaders (FPD)

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.