SPLM to hold NLC meeting on 9 December: Igga

November 30, 2013 (JUBA) – The long awaited meeting of the National Liberation Council (NLC) of the South Sudan’s ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) is scheduled to take place on 9 December, a senior party leader has announced.

South Sudan’s vice president and second deputy chairperson of the SPLM, James Wani Igga, said the meeting, which was postponed many times, would ultimately take place within more than one week

Igga made the announcement on the state-owned SSTV on Friday and repeated it on Saturday, urging all the members of the supposedly dissolved structure of the NLC to be on standby for the meeting.

“All SPLM National Liberation Council (NLC) members are here asked to be on standby so that by the 9th of December, so few days from now, there is going to be the SPLM National Liberation Council (NLC) meeting”, Igga read in a statement, adding that the details will be gathered from the secretariat general.

South Sudan’s president and SPLM chairperson, Salva Kiir Mayardit, earlier this month said the SPLM existing structures “dissolved itself” after the May dateline due to failure to hold a national convention by then.

NLC, which serves as the legislative organ of the SPLM, is expected to pass the basic documents such as the constitution, code of conduct, manifesto and rules and regulations.

It is not clear whether the national body will as well initiate dialogue to try and reconcile rivalling senior party leaders.

Igga’s statement also came shortly after the first deputy chairperson of the SPLM, Riek Machar Teny, backed by several members of the Political Bureau (PB), on Thursday announced to hold a press conference soon to unveil their resolutions against Kiir’s decision to dissolve the party structures.

In a statement recently released, they accused the chairperson of violating the party constitution, stressing the NLC and PB can only be dissolved through congresses and the national convention.

Igga further announced that the national convention will also take place in the “first quarter” of 2014, only “few weeks after December,” he said.

The national convention will elect party’s new leaders, including chairperson, who will contest on the party ticket for the 2015 presidential elections.

He also called on “constitutional post-holders who are members of the SPLM to report to the general secretariat three days a week for possible assignments”.

The latest schedule for the NLC meeting on 22 October was also postponed without an explanation.

(ST)