South Sudan to conduct elections if no deal with opposition
March 30, 2018 (JUBA) – South Sudanese government Friday warned it would conduct elections to avoid illegitimacy and power vacuum if peace revitalizations talks with the opposition groups fail to reach a deal.
“The rebels are intransigent because the American sanctions have emboldened them. We know they are not going to engage in good faith in the next round of talks because they think the present government, the mandate of the transitional government of national unity expires in August,” Tor Deng Mawien Presidential Adviser on Decentralization and Intergovernmental linkage told Sudan Tribune on Friday.
Mawien further predicted that the opposition would not sign a peace agreement and until August and then they will say that the “government is illegitimate and then go around the region and the world preaching it”.
That will not happen. If the current efforts, including the revitalization process, fail to culminate into a new arrangement, the government will conduct elections”, he said.
In line with the 2015 peace agreement
Last Wednesday the First Vice President Taban Deng Gai said the gap between government and the opposition on security arrangements and power-sharing remains wide
“The gap between what the government proposes as the way to resolving the current situation and what the opposition is proposing is huge and wide. It is difficult to close,” said Taban Deng Gai
The parties to the revitalization process are expected to meet next April to discuss a series of proposals the mediation will submit based on the positions of the two sides during the talks last February.
The presidential adviser reiterated the commitment of the government to end the war adding that any U.S.-instigated sanctions would exacerbate the situation if they are implemented.
Washington, the protector and close supporter of the young nation, now is accused by the South Sudanese officials of backing the opposition groups and
(ST)