SPLM created environment of fragmentation

Who is responsible, the SPLM Political Bureau or the SPLM Secretariat?

By Justin D. Wannis

February 5, 2010 — Many SPLM members all over the south have expressed their disappointment by walking out of the party to contest as independent
candidates after being screened out by the Electoral College and
political bureau. Western Equatoria State alone has about 43 SPLM
independent candidates including 2 candidates for governorship.

This seems to be the first time in the history of southern Sudan that
so many independent candidates are contesting outside their own party.
For many who did not know any other party than SPLM during the war,
some are asking questions such as; what went wrong with the SPLM and
what is the future of the SPLM as a party should the independent
candidates win the forth coming elections?

Will they be able to come back to the party voluntarily or opt to join
any other party? It is now a big problem for the SPLM party as it is
most likely that the independent candidates may win the forth coming
elections leaving the mother SPLM party with minority seats in the
parliament including some states which according to observers may be
governed by independent governors. It is also reported that out of ten
states of the south, there are 7 independent candidates contesting to
become governors.

There are speculations that the SPLM party is divided over the issue
of independent candidates either they should remain within the party
or resign. Should the SPLM decide to keep them; it may create
political confusions as one party cannot have two candidates
contesting over one constituency. Other parties may not buy the idea
of two SPLM members in same constituency.

Who is an independent candidate?

An independent candidate is someone who is not a member of any
political party or the one who is dissatisfied with his/her party and
decides to resign from the party. The one who resigns from the party
and go independent is not a member of the party anymore and has
nothing to do with this particular party. It is purely up to this
person to make a decision after the elections to either come back to
the party on conditions, join any other party or forms a new party of
his/her own depending on the number of supporters he/she has.

One needs to have a look on the SPLM constitution what it says about
its members running as independent candidates. If it does exist in the
SPLM constitution or not, then the issue here will be a bit difficult
for the party unless if it tries to play tricky politics by trying to
buy time to wait for the last minute and tell the members that they
are still active members of the party and cannot run independently. By
doing so, it will be too late for the candidates to file any case
against their own party as there will be no enough time for that.

SPLM Loyal Members

When the political bureau decided on who should be the party
candidates, there were reports of those who were loyal to the party
are those SPLM nominated and have the backing of the political bureau.
However, one wonders how the SPLM party justifies loyalty as prominent
members of the SPLM were screened out who have served in the party
since the time it was created and are those who have tremendous
support from the grassroots?

I strongly believe that the whole process of selecting candidates from
the electoral college to the political bureau have created what we are
now seeing as a total political confusion in south Sudan by the SPLM.
If this is south Sudan’s first democratic elections in more than 30
years, how sure are the politicians that it will be any better in a
post independent south Sudan should southerners vote for separation in
a referendum 2011?

What would happen if the seven states are going to be governed by
independent governors?

Some observers believe that an SPLM led government in Juba would do
things difficult for the independent governors to govern their states.
Such policies took place and succeeded during the administration of
the former governor of Western Equatoria Brig. Patrick Raphael Zamoi
when the state was receiving very little money from the GoSS just to
force the administration to fail. After the fall of Zamoi, the GoSS
started to release a lot of money to the state.

But I believe this time it will not be the same as it was by then. The
situation shall depend on the number of seats that shall be occupied
by the SPLM in both the SLA and SSLA (state legislative assembly and
southern Sudan legislative assembly). It shall be difficult for the
SPLM led government (if it shall so be) to sanction seven states out
of ten.

The system we have is presidential not parliamentary, may be this will
help the SPLM as the president of the GoSS will definitely be an SPLM.
We wait to see the process of political and democratic transformations
of the South. For the SPLM, this is a lesson to learn and the only way
forward for the party is either to accept the will of those
independent candidates or prepare for a radical and genuine reform
otherwise the party has already shot itself on the foot.

As I was writing this article, a meeting was taking place in Juba
between the SPLM party leaderships and the independent candidates whom
I believe are those inspiring for governorships.

The author is a Sudanese writer from Yambio.