SPLM must seek for Sudan’s Presidency in 2008 election – governor
By Isaac Vuni
Feb 10, 2007 (TORIT) — A southern Sudan state governor said that Sudan People’s Liberation Movement should work to the presidency in the next election, insisting that the movement is now transformed to political party and enjoying large popularity in the whole Sudan.
The governor and chairman of SPLM in Eastern Equatoria state, Brig. Aloisio Emor Ojetuk said SPLM is very popular in Khartoum and also it’s enjoying majority respect among southern Sudanese. Therefore, he adds, SPLM must seek for the bigger leg in the forthcoming election of 2008; “By bigger leg, I mean an SPLM member to rule the Sudan” he clarified.
Ojetuk said “SPLM has now transformed itself from people of fighting characters to people who can make peace with its enemies and became participant in government of the Sudan at all levels”
He said, for the SPLM to be able to compete with other parties in the country, it is vital for SPLM members to work together and lay strategies for winning the forth coming election of 2008. Adding that the meeting is long over due but it is vital to forge the way forwards for transformation of state SPLM into active political party.
The state SPLM chairman said the objective of Friday 9 February meeting is to inform SPLM members on what has been happening in the circle of the SPLM both at the national regional and state levels.
He emphasized that SPLM is at the stage of political struggle since the time SPLM was transformed into a political party at Rumbek conference of July 2005.
Ojetuk said it is now the work of the SPLM to seek and organizes the masses in southern Sudan to vote for self determination as it has been incorporated in the CPA.
The SPLM chairman thanks its members for effective participation in convincing EDF and other militias to rejoin the SPLA. “We shall soon be militia free”, declared governor Ojetuk.
There are eight political parties in southern Sudan and are currently represented in the interim legislative assembly of Eastern Equatoria state but most of them have no offices except National Congress Party, who only have limited supporters from Torit town and the three counties of Kapoeta. Therefore, it’s vital for SPLM to sensitize and win over the whole state in order to ensured absolute majority, comes election next year.
In April 2006 SPLM was legitimized and started to operate as a political party. Between May and June last year, SPLM held series of meeting with its partners in the CPA but it was not easy to convince the NCP made it difficult for SPLM to implement especially on the issue of boundary between north and south, status of Abyei and its boundary, petroleum commission formation and sharing of oil revenue from oil fields in southern Sudan.
(ST)