JMEC convenes meeting in Juba over transitional government formation
December 24, 2015 (JUBA) – The Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC), a body entrusted with overseeing implementation of the South Sudanese peace agreement signed in August, convened a second meeting in the capital, Juba, on Wednesday with representatives from the government, SPLM in opposition (SPLM-IO) and former detainees and discussed processes, which will lead to the formation of a Transitional Government of National Unity (TGoNU) as per the peace accord.
Mogae said the commitment to ending the war and beginning a chapter of peace and development in South Sudan would be the best Christmas gift.
“To the people of South Sudan, in this season of hope, forgiveness and renewal, it is my sincere hope that this Christmas, 2015, is the last celebrated in a context of conflict,” he said.
President Salva Kiir’s government, the SPLM-IO led by former vice-president Riek Machar, who is the first vice-president designate in accordance with the peace agreement and the former political detainees described the meeting as “positive.”
The stakeholders’ meeting was meant to quickly move forward the establishment of the transitional government.
President Kiir will lead the TGoNU and take 16 of the 30 ministries during the transitional period. The SPLM-IO under Machar will have 10 ministries and the former political detainees equally share the remaining 4 with other South Sudanese political parties.
The SPLM-IO will appoint governors for the oil rich states of Upper Nile and Unity and have 40% of the government in those two states as well as in Jonglei, a third state in the greater Upper Nile region.
JMEC convened its inaugural meeting in November but a quorum was not met due to absence of the SPLM-IO members. 150 members of the advance team of the SPLM-IO led by their chief negotiator, Taban Deng Gai, arrived in Juba on Monday and participated in the first inclusive JMEC meeting.
SPLM-IO will have representatives in the National Constitutional Amendment Committee (NCAC), a body responsible for rewriting the transitional constitution to incorporate the peace agreement. An interim constitution should be ready before TGoNU is formed and the process, according to the August peace deal, will take at least 65 days from the first date of its sitting.
It is not clear if the January 2016 deadline set by JMEC to form the TGoNU would be met.
The armed opposition leader, Machar is expected to return to Juba in January 2016 only after the process towards formation of the government, including constitutional amendment, is completed, paving the way for the formation of the new government.
(ST)