SPLM political bureau meeting set for 5 March

February 28, 2012 (JUBA) – The political bureau of South Sudan’s ruling party – the SPLM – will meet next week to review and adopt drafts of the party’s basic documents ahead of the party’s National Liberation Council (NLC) and extra ordinary conventions.

Anne Itto, the deputy secretary general of the party said the move to have the meeting held on 5 March, followed a sitting of top leaders on Tuesday.

The SPLM chairperson, Salva Kiir, his deputies Riek Machar and James Wani Igga as well as the secretary general, Pagan Amum attended the meeting in Juba, South Sudan.

Chairpersons and deputy chairpersons of SPLM ad hoc committees established to draft the party’s basic documents, according to officials, also attended the high-level meeting. Such documents include the party manifesto, constitution, rules, regulations, and code of conduct.

“There was no agreement during the meeting on holding the extra ordinary convention as previously planned on March 15,” a party official told Sudan Tribune.

Instead, the leadership meeting decided to defer setting a date for the NLC meeting and Convention until a meeting of the Political Bureau, he added.

Meanwhile, the extra ordinary national convention is expected to discuss and approve the party’s revised basic documents, paving way for the SPLM to register as a political party in young nation.

Having its basic documents in place, party officials argue, will enable the SPLM to pursue, with renewed energy, the process of transforming itself into a mass political party capable of delivering peace dividends to the people of South Sudan.

(ST)