Sudan electoral board warns Salva Kiir to resign from his military position
January 16, 2010 (JUBA) – The Sudan’s National Elections Commission (NEC) has sent a warning letter to the semi-autonomous Southern Sudan President and the region’s presidential candidate, General Salva Kiir Mayardit, to relinquish his military post in order to qualify to run for the upcoming April 2010 elections.
The SPLM Political Bureau on Friday formally nominated the incumbent chairman, Salva Kiir, without any challenger, as the candidate for the Southern Sudan presidency position.
The warning by NEC came immediately after the nomination of General Kiir who is also the interim First Vice President of the Republic of Sudan.
The Chairman of the Registration Committee in the National Elections Commission, Mukhtar Al Asam, said the Commission had already sent a written letter to the Southern Sudan President, Salva Kiir Mayardit, explaining that he cannot be eligible to run for the elections while still holding his military position.
Speaking during a radio program on Friday, Al Asam said that the rule applies to all military personnel without any exception.
Kiir is currently an active army General in the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and heads the recently formed military Command Council, composed of more than 40 senior SPLA officers, and he is also the Commander-in-Chief of the army by the virtue of being the President of the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS).
Earlier, the Presidential Affairs minister Dr. Luka Biong Deng who is a close aide to Southern Sudan president ruled out any possibility of General Kiir stepping down from the army after nomination.
However, the Deputy Secretary General of the SPLM and the party’s newly nominated presidential candidate at the national level, Yassir Arman, revealed on Saturday that the SPLM had already formed committees to study all the legal and procedural disputes of the elections.
In another related development, the SPLM Secretary General, Pagan Amum, said the movement’s Political Bureau also discussed the possibility of forming alliances with some parties in Northern and Southern Sudan for the upcoming elections.
Speaking during a press conference in Juba on Friday, Amum also pointed out that the SPLM Political Bureau would soon announce the party’s candidates running for the executive and legislative posts across the country.
NEC has set January 22, as the deadline for receiving the names of selected candidates.
The Commission will directly receive the name of the SPLM candidate for the post of the President of the Republic while the candidate for Southern Sudan president will first pass through the Southern Sudan High Elections Committee in Juba before submitting it to the NEC headquarters in Khartoum.
NEC is a national legal body established by law in 2008 in accordance with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and the Interim Constitution of Sudan, 2005.
It is charged with the responsibility to process and oversee the conduct of the post-war general elections during the interim period and has established branches at Southern Sudan and states levels.
(ST)
Kim Deng
Sudan electoral board warns Salva Kiir to resign from his military position
Folks,
Mr. Coward/cowboy will never yield to your signal.
Thyinka
Sudan electoral board warns Salva Kiir to resign from his military position
Kiir Can resign as an army general for the sake of election but remains commander in chief of Southern Sudan Armed forces before the election by virtue of being president of South Sudan. He would remain commander in chief if he wins the presidency of South Sudan in the upcoming election as expected.
He can still head the military command council in his capacity as commander in chief of Armed Forces in southern Sudan. There is no hope for anyone to make a coup in Southern Sudan without being noticed by the military intelligence so there shouldn’t be much ado about nothing. This is no big deal. It is part of the game.
joseph
Sudan electoral board warns Salva Kiir to resign from his military position
You all arguing for nothing or for the same thing. When it’s said that Salva Kiir must give up is military position, it means that he will stop being called General Salva Kiir and become Mr. Hon. Salva Kiir. He will also resign from the Chairmanship of Military Command Council.
HE WILL STILL REMAIN THE C-IN-C OF SPLA because he is the President. He will give commands to the Army General. He will give orders and they will be obeyed. He will just be getting out of the Uniform. He will still have the authority to pick the person to lead the Army on his behalf. He will just be a civilian, just like most countries have civilian presidents. Bashir gave up his army position but he is still the C-in-C of SAF. That is what Luka Biong was trying to say but he made a mess of it and people picked it up and twisted it.
Salva Kiir giving up his army post, uniforms and badges will not change the hierarchy in SPLA. It doesn’t mean Paulino Matip will take up Salva Kiir’s positions in SPLA. He’s not Salva Kiir’s deputy in all positions. He’s the Deputy C-in-C. Again, Salva Kiir is only becoming a civilian, at least theoretically. He’s not stopping being the C-in-C. Read the constitution. It says that they president is the C-in-C of the armed forces. But the president must be a civilian. Have you ever heard of a country where the President is not the C-in-C?
Hillary B.M.L,M
Sudan electoral board warns Salva Kiir to resign from his military position
Good move, Salver should Step down if he want to compete for Presidency post otherwise even we Southerners don’t wnat military President which at any time could apply Dictatorship System, we know who is he, he is already a……..
Critic_Ngueny
Sudan electoral board warns Salva Kiir to resign from his military position
Dear barking dogs,
I am backed; ready to fight for the right and dignity of my warriors or freedom fighters, Dinkas wherever they are.Logic and Kim most be careful otherwise.
Critic_Ngueny from Bor town
J.James
Sudan electoral board warns Salva Kiir to resign from his military position
Hi GUY
James James is back but he wanted all those tribalists to stop taking southerners backward.
Arabs must be defeated.
However, Kiir need to resign from military leadership peacfully.
GOD BLESS
The writer is always peace a ctivist.
Gatwech
Sudan electoral board warns Salva Kiir to resign from his military position
Dear readers,
There is no reason and time for incompentent Salva Kiir’s fans to cry over the spilled milk. They should abide by the law or risk being considered outlaws and an obstacle to democratic transformation in the country and in the South in particular.
First, these fans should note the inevitables: 1) General Salvatore Kiir Miyerdit must strip himself of any military uniform, title and detach himself from the army (I think you know what I mean)if he will ever have to run for elections.
2) He must resign from being the head of the SPLA Command Council and hand over the position to General Paulino Matip with immediate effect. It is Matip that will be calling for the Council’s meeting and chairing it. Kiir will only get the military report from Gen. Matip in the same way he gets parliamentary reports from Speaker James Wani Igga or judiciary reports from the Chief Justice of South Sudan Supreme Court.
These are very clear requirements. And if the law says DURING the elections he should not act as the Commander-in-Chief of the SPLA, then the Vice President Dr. Riek Machar should act as the Commander-in-Chief of the SPLA until Kiir wins the elections (ooops!), swears in and then resumes the responsibility as Commander-in-Chief of the SPLA.
But even if he wins the elections (ooops!) he cannot resume heading the SPLA Command Council because that is purely an independent military institution like the parliament, Council of Ministers or Judicial Council. James Wani Igga chairs the Assembly sittings and Chief Justice chairs Judiciary Council’s meetings. Salva Kiir will only continue to chair Council of Ministers meetings. Do you see the implications folks? There is a long hefty way for the Gogrial chief.
Now to add the fuel to the already burning fire, reports from Juba indicate that the Gogrial Chief (Kiir) has refused the (semi) democratic process of candidates by electoral colleges in states. He has thrown out the criteria of selection from all states at the Political Bureau meetings currently in Juba. Kiir is now re-appointing as electoral candidates those whose names were dropped in the selection process at the ten states levels by the Electoral Colleges and did not even come to the Political Bureau. He is removing many of the names brought by the Electoral Colleges and putting unknown names in there. He has resorted to friendship and personal loyalty to him instead of to the party (SPLM) and popularity at the grass roots.
These latest madness and dictatorial mess up at real display will stir up anger across the South. NEC is expected to receive tens of thousands of appeal letters against Kiir’s nomination based on his incompetence and against his handpicked choices disregarding the criteria. This again is a clear violation of the constitutional electoral process set by NEC and will haunt Kiir’s candidacy. More issues are coming soon….
But how did these bad things happen in the first place?
I told you yesterday that the so-called SPLM political bureau is mostly composed of a bunch of handpicked political idiots who do not see things beyond their short noses. They would have studied the implications of the law before they blindly rushed to the nomination of an incompetent military man, 1st Lt. General Salva Kiir Mayardit, head of the SPLA Command Council and Commander-in-Chief of the SPLA.
Both Interim Constitutions of Sudan and of Southern Sudan clearly reject any member of the army to stand for political posts DURING the elections. Unfortunately some of these SPLM political idiots think that what they think and wish is what matters most than what the law says. IDIOTS!
The same electoral law which requires that Salva Kiir resigns from military was jointly negotiated by the SPLM and NCP, passed in the National Assembly jointly by the two parties and signed into law by President Al-Bashir in front of Salva Kiir. And today Dr. Luka Biong Deng wants to deny the constitutional requirement simply because he wishes his boss to remain in military? Wow…
The NEC has already ruled its decision in advance. Salva Kiir will have to handover his military position to his next man in the chain of command and that is 1st Lt. General Paulino Matip Nhial. Failure to do so Salva Kiir will not be allowed to run for the presidential elections in South Sudan or even for the seat in his constituency. And if he instead hands over the military position to another handpicked officer, that will be a disaster in the army because he will be violating the army chain of command unless he first dismisses 1st Lt. General Paulino Matip from the army. And the implication is that dismissing General Paulino with the clear intention to bring his kin to replace him in this situation is very risky because that will not be respected. It will have no legal and procedural basis and will simply be treated as a tribal conspiracy outside the law. And that will be the violation of the Juba Declaration, 2006.
Again, Salva Kiir still has a long list of other legal challenges waiting for him after this army saga. One of them is the case of Dr. Lam Akol’s registered political party which General Kiir dictatorially said would not run for the elections in the South. The Constitutional Court in Khartoum rejected Kiir’s decision describing it as unconstitutional and ordered Kiir to reverse it by allowing Dr. Lam Akol’s party to operate actively in the South without any intimidations or harassments. Kiir has been ignoring the ruling of the Court.
Kiir is needed to reverse his decision; otherwise the Constitutional Court will charge him for violating the constitution which is the supreme law of the land that of course brought Kiir himself as First Vice President and President of the South. There are other legal cases as well…
And if he luckily clears himself toothless and clean by cooperating with whatever the NEC tells him to do according to the law, then finally he will face the ‘NO FOR SALVA KIIR’s’ voting power of the people of South Sudan in April 2010. He will definitely lose the elections.
And if Salvatore Kiir Miyerdit resorts to dictatorship that would be the ‘whistle blowing’ many people are waiting to see. He will find himself in a bottomless pit, locally, regionally and internationally. Every body will shout at him; the people, the army, the government, the AU, the UN Security Council and the wider international community. He will be isolated by all these bodies and treated as violator of the law and therefore a dictator and criminal. This will invite internal chaos with Salva Kiir losing out!!!
The people of South Sudan are not ready to experience another five years of incompetence, corruption, tribalism, insecurity, visionless, lack of development (service delivery), lack of political direction, land grabbing, and the list is long.
Salvatore Kiir Miyerdit will NEVER be sworn in as the next and first ELECTED president of South Sudan because he doesn’t deserve it.
Mark my WORDS!
Time1
Sudan electoral board warns Salva Kiir to resign from his military position
NEC is just a pro NCP body, what is Abel Alier doing in this NEC, why does abel alier really think he was appointed to the NEC? because somebody else would hav en apoined to that position, NEC should examine omer bashirs war crimes convictions otherwise salva kirr will also not quit the army and there should be no elections if nessecary because NEC is a pro NCP organization ather than a national body.
Khent
Sudan electoral board warns Salva Kiir to resign from his military position
Salva Kirr should seriously relinquish the position of Commander-in-Chief to either Lt. Gen. Nhial Deng Nhial, or to Lt. Gen. Bior Ajang.
Time1
Sudan electoral board warns Salva Kiir to resign from his military position
Salva Kirr has been confirmed as already retired from army since 2005, he is currently only cmmander in chief because he is the president, so he is not in the Army now. This pro NCP NEC is only rushing after Kirr without checking or understanding his statues, he already had retired, so this case is now closed for those who do not know.