SPLM leadership set to convene within two weeks
November 9, 2013 (JUBA) – South Sudan’s ruling party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), has confirmed to convene its long awaited leadership meeting from November 23 – 25, amidst fears of sparking further internal crisis in the party.
The party’s legislative organ is expected to deliberate on and pass the long overdue four basic documents which include the constitution, manifesto, code of conduct and rules and regulations, as well as try to resolve the ongoing differences among its senior leaders.
This NLC’s late intervention comes after the Political Bureau (PB), which is the highest executive body of the party, failed to meet initially due to the crisis the senior leadership went into during the preliminary PB meeting on 5 March 2013.
The March crisis was sparked by the revelation that a number of senior party leaders, including the former vice-president, Riek Machar, also the SPLM deputy chairperson, as well as the currently suspended secretary general, Pagan Amum, wanted to contest for the party chairmanship in the next national convention for flag bearing of 2015 presidential elections.
Robecca Nyandeng de Mabior, the widow of the late John Garang de Mabior who was the first chairman and founder of the SPLM, also expressed the need to unseat the current chairman, Kiir.
The ruling party, which elects its leadership every five years, held its last national convention in May 2008, in preparation for the April 2010 general elections. It was per the schedule also due to hold the next national convention last May 2013, in order to confirm or elect a new leadership in preparation for the upcoming 2015 elections.
Machar’s declared intention to contest for the party chairmanship in the next convention did not however sound well with Salva Kiir, the party chairman since 2005, who doubles as the president of the republic and wanted a third term in office till 2020.
Consequently, in July Kiir forced Machar to lose his job as the vice-president, but the two have remained at large as the most senior colleagues in the ruling party.
Amum on the other hand was suspended by Kiir and his freedoms of movement and expression were curtailed due to criticisms he labelled against the latter over the way he handled national issues.
The opposing camps have been mobilizing and lobbying for support among the membership of the PB and NLC since March this year.
In a seemingly tactical manoeuvre to try to avoid confrontation with his critics in the party top echelon, Kiir had to delay calling for the party meetings despite reported eight requests by the former SG, Amum, and another recent request by the acting SG, Ann Itto, for 22 October.
Besides the leadership contest, there are also sharp tactical differences particularly in the party’s draft constitution as many of its provisions are seen by Kiir’s critics as undemocratic, hence an intentional tendency toward dictatorship.
For instance, one of the controversial provisions in the draft suggests that only the party chairman shall be elected, who in turn shall appoint the rest of the senior colleagues. The same scenario would also replicate at the states and counties levels.
Also the draft suggests the “show of hand” in the party voting, instead of the “secret ballot”, among others.
Observers fear that this meeting generates deep internal divisions and threatens the unity of the ruling party and its leadership.
Despite being in existence for 30 years since 1983, the SPLM has only elected its leadership twice when it rarely conducted two national conventions in 1994, Chukudum, and 2008, Juba.
(ST)