South Sudan referendum and good governance are top SPLM priorities – official

By Julius Uma

September 20, 2010 (JUBA) – The policy framework 2010 of the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) has ranked the forthcoming referendum, good governance practices and security as top among its lists of priorities in the run-up to the post-referendum era, a party official told Sudan Tribune on Friday.

Achuil Malith Banggol, a Secretary at the Juba-based Secretariat for Popular and Syndicated Organization – Southern Sector – said the party’s policy framework, drawn in consultation with various stakeholders provided for pre and post-referendum guidelines, with specific focus on next-year’s referendum on self-determination of the Southern population.

“The SPLM has a clear plan for the referendum with a strategic focus already placed on the priority needs of the people of South Sudan as part of the post-referendum arrangements,” he said.

Other key areas, he reiterated, were food security, health service provision, education, infrastructural development and institutional capacity building, justice and the rule of law, among others.

Achuil, however, emphasized the importance of maintaining adequate food security through agriculture, the backbone of rural economies. Nearly 80 percent of the populations, mainly women, are engaged in agricultural activities, with average productivity valued at merely 1.5 tons per household.

“Food security remains an essential element. How do you expect people to participate in all these referendum processes on empty stomachs?” he queried.
Asked what his party was doing as part of preparations for the forthcoming referendum, Achuil said it is the constitutional mandate of Southern Sudan Referendum Commission (SSRC) and its respective state organs to handle such processes, not the SPLM.

“What are the civil society activists and other stakeholders doing if they cannot engage the referendum commission in useful discussions? Matters pertaining to the referendum preparations are not handled by the SPLM, but the commission appointed to oversee the referendum,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sudan Tribune on Sunday reported how Central Equatoria State (CES) Referendum High Committee, a body established by the Southern Sudan Referendum Bureau (SSRB), still operates without an office.

“Up to now, we still operate without an office and no staffs have been appointed to work under the committee. We still operate under trees and sometimes our papers are blown away by wind,” Lorna Sadia, a member of the CES High Committee complained.

SSRC is already in the process of establishing an information committee, consisting of a neutral team that will liaise with the media fraternity during the pre and post-referendum era. Similarly, the southern government is reportedly in the process of setting up a security committee, comprising of trained personnel who are required to be fair, impartial and neutral in their work.

The Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) has already set-up a referendum Taskforce, chaired by the Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny, which has now embarked on preparing people for the referendum, post-referendum arrangements as well as providing guidance to the government ahead of 2011. The body serves as an oversight to carry out the government’s obligation by assisting the technical Southern Sudan Referendum Commission/Bureau in setting the ground conducive for the conduct of the plebiscite.

(ST)