Lam Akol says considering to form new alliance n South Sudan
April 1, 2020 (JUBA) – Lam Akol, the leader of the National Democratic Movement (NDM) said considering the formation of a new political alliance in South Sudan.
The announcement comes after the patent failure of his alliance with the South Sudan Opposition Alliance forces (SSOA) who worked to exclude the NDM from the position of the vice-president and four ministerial portfolios.
In the second part of his long interview with the Juba based Al Maugif of 27 March, Akol even did not rule out the involvement of President Kiir and his party from his exclusion from the government.
“The President is the Chairman of SPLM-IG. I, therefore, don’t think that he is kept out of the picture,” he said.
Also, for the first time, he admitted the failure of his alliance with the SSOA.
“We say that the alliance failed but we do not regret it, because there were gains we made together before SSOA relocated to Juba,” he said.
Further, the political leader said he was considering to forge a new political alliance with new political groups to achieve democratic reforms in the country.
(…) We feel that there are national forces eager to move in the direction of change,” he said.
“We will look for these people and talk to them in order to create a broad front that will push towards the implementation of the peace agreement and the transition to democracy,” he further stressed.
Akol declined to disclose further details about his future alliance but said the actors with whom he plans to form an alliance are politically active in Juba and together they can form a political force able to positively impact to “achieve change and reform”.
SPLM-IO MEMBER
Akol who distanced himself from President Kiir even before the independence of South Sudan was recently accused by the information minister of being a member of the SPLM-IO because he called to appoint three state governors from the Machar-led group.
During a recent meeting of a committee on the division of the Parties’ quotas in the States, Michael Makuei said that had conceded from 32 states to 10 states and therefore the other parties must concede to them this time around.
“My response was that the minister confuses between two things that have nothing in common at all: the subject of concessions and the application of a simple calculation in the distribution of party shares regarding the states. As for the concessions, this is the basis of any negotiations in the world,” said the NDM leader.
“When I pointed this out, Michael Makuei accused me of being a well-known member of SPLM/A-IO. I told him that not everyone who was not in his orbit is necessarily with SPLM/A-IO. We have well known public independent positions,” he added.
(ST)