Position of South Sudan Political Parties on the Transition

POSITION OF SOUTH SUDAN POLITICAL PARTIES
ON THE TRANSITION

1. The beginning of the Transitional Period is to be the 9th of July 2011.

2. The new state shall be called “The Republic of South Sudan”, and all the South Sudan Political Parties shall agree on the flag, the national anthem and the coat of arms.

3. The length of the Transitional Period is to be from 18 to 21 months. After which general elections shall be held to elect the Constituent Assembly that will promulgate the Permanent Constitution.

4. It is essential to have lean and effective national and State governments. This saves money for the much needed basic services for our people, such as health, education and potable water. We are proposing a maximum of twenty (20) ministries for the national government.

5. The power sharing with the SPLM is to be 50:50. This percentage is to apply to the national, State and county levels. The power sharing percentage is to be a constitutional provision (transitional provisions).

6. The Transitional National Assembly and States’ legislative assemblies have to maintain the same number of members as the current Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly and States’ legislative assemblies, i.e., 170 and 48 members, respectively. This is in line with the lean and effective government we are advocating. The above percentage (point 5) applies to appointing members thereto.

7. There is no constitutional, legal or political justification to extend the assemblies and governments of the Government of Southern Sudan to the independent and sovereign Republic of South Sudan (See our paper: “why the mandate of the Government of Southern Sudan cannot be extended beyond July 9th 2011”).

8. There is an urgent need for a comprehensive plan to eliminate all forms of insecurity. It is necessary to have peace and stability before the declaration of the new state. Some areas to pay attention to are: serious peace talks with armed rebels, professionalization of the security organs, revision of the salary scale of soldiers, combating hunger, reinstatement of government officials dismissed after and because of the elections, and carrying out DDR in a professional manner.

9. The SPLM is to brief the parties on the Abyei problem: what are the prospects for solution? Could that be possible before the 9th of July 2011? If not, what is expected of the South to do?

10. We have already agreed in the All South Sudan Political Parties Conference that the current President of the Government of Southern Sudan shall become the President of the Republic of South Sudan for the Transitional Period. We reaffirm this commitment, and add that he may be elected for another term only.

WHY THE MANDATE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF SOUTHERN SUDAN (GOSS) CANNOT BE EXTENDED BEYOND JULY 9th 2011:

On July 9, 2005, the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS), was established in accordance to the provisions of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and the Interim National Constitution of the Republic of Sudan 2005, (Article 53 (1)).

The Interim Constitution of Southern Sudan, 2005 establishes an autonomous Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS), in the southern part of the Republic of Sudan . Section 65 of the Interim Constitution ofSudan, states that, prior to the elections that shall be held during the interim period:-
(a) the incumbent President of the Republic, or his successor, shall be the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Sudan Armed Forces, in accordance to this Constitution;

(b) the Chairman of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, or his successor, shall be the First Vice President of the Republic of Sudan and shall at the same time be the President of the Government of Southern Sudan and Commander-in-Chief of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, in accordance to this constitution.

However, the CPA and the Interim Constitution of Southern Sudan also created a number of interim institutions to govern the interim period of 6 years in Southern Sudan, culminating in the Referendum on Self- determination of Southern Sudan 2011.These institutions include, among others, Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly (Section 57 (1) of the Interim Constitution of Southern Sudan 2005).

Why the Mandate of GOSS and its respective government institutions cannot be extended beyond July 2011:1. Section 102 of the Interim Constitution of Southern Sudan 2005, states that the tenure of the elected President of GOSS shall be five years, commencing from the date of assumption of office and that the same President may be re-elected for one more term only. This provision cannot apply in the event that Southern Sudan becomes an independent entity, because the institutions of GOSS, for which the President was elected, will cease to exist at the end of the interim period on July 8th 2011, so as to allow for sovereign institutions of the new nation to emerge. If there were an intention for this arrangement to continue beyond the interim period, the constitution of Southern Sudan would have provided for this, as is the case in Article 69 of the Interim National Constitution of Sudan.

2. Section 69 (1) of the Interim National Constitution of Sudan, states that, should the outcome of the referendum on Self-determination confirm unity, the President of the Republic and the First Vice President shall complete the tenure of their offices. This is true because all the institutions established during the interim period would remain in force in the whole Sudan .

3. Section 69(2) of the Interim Constitution of Sudan states that, in the event of a vote for secession by the people of Southern Sudan, the President of the Republic shall continue in office, if he/her is from the North; however, if the President is from the South, he/she shall be deemed to have resigned and the First Vice President shall assume the office of the President of the Republic, to complete the tenure to the next elections.

4. There is no provision in the Interim Constitution of Southern Sudan 2005 stating that the First Vice President of the Republic of Sudan , who is also the President of the Government of Southern Sudan, shall continue in office during the transitional period, in an independent South Sudan .

5. Section 118 (2) of the Interim Constitution of Sudan states that, in the event of a vote for secession by the people of Southern Sudan, the seats of the members and representatives of Southern Sudan in the National Legislature shall be deemed to have fallen vacant and the National Legislature, being so reconstituted, shall complete its tenure to the next elections. This means that as soon as the result of the referendum of Southern Sudan confirms secession, all Southern Sudanese in the national parliament shall lose their seats. It is therefore, not possible for such members to be incorporated into Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly, because their original mandate does not include SSLA, as they were directly elected to the National Assembly in the north and not Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly in the South. Furthermore, SSLA ceases to exist at the end of the interim period on the 8th of July 2011, because it was not elected for an independent state of South Sudan and there are no provisions in the ICSS for its continuation into the independent state.

6. All the institutions of government established during the interim periods; January 2005 to July 2011, are autonomous within the Republic of Sudan . Therefore, the mandate of such institutions ends at the conclusion of the Interim Period on July 8th 2011 and the declaration of the newly independent state takes place thereof. This in itself is enough reason to justify why there must be review of the Interim Constitution of Southern Sudan 2005, so as to provide for the sovereign constitutional needs of the new independent state.

7. Although the President of the Government of Southern Sudan was directly elected by the people of Southern Sudan in accordance to the provision of Section 97 (1) of the Interim Constitution of Southern Sudan 2005, subject to the provision of Section 26 (1) of National Election Act 2008, his/her election is for the position of GOSS President and not the President of the newly independent South Sudan. These elections were organized on the strength of a Sudanese law (National Elections Act 2008), which cannot be applicable to independent South Sudan from the 9th of July 2011.

Nevertheless, during the All Southern Sudan Political Parties Conference, held in Juba, from 13th – 17thOctober 2010, the political parties of South Sudan unanimously agreed that, in the event the people of South Sudan vote for secession (Section 3 (b) (iii) of the Final Communiqué), the President of the Government of Southern Sudan, H.E Salva Kiir Mayardit, will lead the transitional government in the newly independent state. The political parties remain committed to this agreement. This resolution is in the spirit of consensual politics that is the hallmark of all transitions.

8. As for the elections to the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly and to the States Legislative Assemblies, these two levels of legislature were elected in respect of the interim institutions and for the autonomous government of Southern Sudan (GOSS). Therefore, such institutions do not have any mandate from the people of Southern Sudan for the newly independent nation, come July 9th 2011.

9. Managing the expectations of the people of Southern Sudan remains an important and very crucial aspect of the post referendum era. The people of Southern Sudan voted overwhelmingly in the Southern Sudan Referendum 2011, recording 98.83% votes in favor of secession. This clearly shows that the people of Southern Sudan want change, from one united Sudan to an independent new country. They expect to see a broad – based transitional government, capable of uniting them and delivering good governance, rule of law and services. The people expect to see these changes come immediately, without delay or hindrance.

10. The people of Southern Sudan have suffered and waited for the independence of Southern Sudan for so long; many have lost their lives in the course of the struggle for freedom. Now that freedom has been achieved, there is no justifiable reason to delay the declaration of an independent South Sudan any further than July 9th 2011.

11. The people of Southern Sudan voted for change and that change must be seen to be happening in the manner in which the transitional arrangements and the transitional governments are agreed upon and the transitional government is formed, in accordance to the consensus achieved at the All South Sudan Political Parties Conference, in October 2010. Otherwise, failure to effect appropriate changes, will make our people lose trust in the government of an independent South Sudan , and that can become a source of insecurity, political, social and economic instability in our new nation.

12. All nations that find themselves in the eve of independence, like Southern Sudan is today, aspire to attain that independence in an atmosphere of total political consensus and national agreement, even when their existing political parties are known to have political disagreements or differences.