South Sudan rights group welcomes election delay
February 15, 2015 (KAMPALA) – A South Sudanese rights group has welcomed the government’s decision to cancel general elections scheduled later this year.
At a council of ministers meeting last Friday officials announced that the planned 30 June poll would be postponed until 2017 while peace talks between the government and the country’s rebel faction continue.
The group’s executive director, Biel Boutros Biel, said the decision by Juba boded well for ongoing talks in Ethiopia going forward.
The South Sudanese government had previously been reluctant to delay elections amid concerns the legitimacy of the elected government would be challenged.
However, Biel said holding elections simply to safeguard the government’s legitimacy was not the right solution, saying both rival parties must set aside their differences for the common good of the South Sudanese people.
“We have to look critically on what is important for the country. Is it legitimacy of the government or it is [the] livelihood of the people the now that the country is at war?” he told Sudan Tribune in an interview on Sunday.
“The country [is] now bitterly divided; the country now is falling apart. So it is the question of holding the country together rather than the government,” he added.
The government had initially indicated it would push ahead with the planned ballot despite failed attempts to secure funds for the conduct of elections.
Biel says the government would do better to negotiate in good faith with rebels for the formation of transitional government of national unity.
“There are other means which can be used by the government to put its legitimacy in place. One of which is to negotiate peace,” he said.
“This peace deal with rebels will bring [a] transitional government of national unity and this government will come together to unite the country to determine the next government,” he added.
The country’s ongoing crisis, which erupted in mid-December 2013, has displaced almost two million people within South Sudan and to neighbouring countries.
Biel said restoring peace was the country’s most pressing need and that conducting elections without national census was an unconstitutional mandate.
“In article 194 of [the] constitution of South Sudan states that there should be [a] population census before the election and article 196 also stated that the election will come only after the census has been conducted, so I think in the firsts place it was not fair to talk of election when [a] population census has not been done,” he said.
The South Sudanese government had faced fierce criticism from the international community, including the US, over its plans to conduct elections, with the rival leaders facing mounting pressure to take concrete measures to end the bloody conflict.
(ST)