Is Salva Kiir losing nomination in his native state?
Is Salva Kiir losing nomination in his native state?
by Wani Tombe
News reaching me from Juba indicates that the name of the current SPLM chairman, Salva Kiir Mayardit, is not included in the nominated SPLM members to the Warrap State Congress.
For those of you who do not understand how preparations leading to the coming SPLM Second National Convention are taken, any SPLM member seeking any party position up to chairmanship has to come through his or her Buma, then Payam, then County, then state, and finally up to the national level, especially for those who seek top positions.
The persons finally selected at the respective SPLM States Congresses are the legitimate members to participate in the Second National Convention set to start on May 10, 2008 in Juba. These are also the members that will be eligible to vote for any nominated person to the top leadership. And importantly, they are also the persons legitimate to qualify for nominations.
The current SPLM leadership will be dissolved by May 10, during which Honorable James Wani Igga, the current chairman of the committee to oversee the conduct of the Convention will chair the deliberations during the five-day Convention.
This new development of Salva Kiir losing membership to the Convention, if confirmed, raises very legal questions to his future to compete for any SPLM position in the coming Convention. Simply he may not qualify even to attend the Convention.
Reports from Juba say that Kiir has now dispatched James Wani Igga to Warrap state to try to correct the situation and insert Salva Kiir’s name in the state Congress and to also push for his nomination to the Convention.
In another news development, Kiir’s Deputy, Dr. Riek Machar reportedly flew to Bentiu, Unity state last week to participate in the SPLM state Congress in his native state and to try to secure his constituency’s nomination to the center in Juba.
Another strange thing is an alcoholic nature of Salva Kiir in recent days. There are reports that the SPLM chairman has been aggressively and heavily drinking alcohol at his residence and shows up at his office rarely. Some of these unconfirmed reports say when he is drunk he jumps up dancing in his native Dinka Bahr el Ghazal dances warning that he doesn’t fear any one.
This strange situation makes people wonder as to what types of decisions General Kiir wants to make under the influence of alcohol.