By Adia Jildo
The Minister of Information and Government’s spokesperson, Michael Makuei Lueth said the Constitution making was one of the main reasons as to why the extension was made as it was the guiding principle to a peaceful, fair and democratic election.
Makuei made the statement while briefing the media after the Council of Minister’s Meeting on Friday citing the need for a review of Constitution currently being used.
“As long as the Constitution is not out, even if we finish all these, that will not be enough for us to run election because constitution is the mother of all the laws and even the laws that we enacted now some of them must be amended to conform to the new constitution,” Makuei told reporters.
“It’s not possible for us to conduct elections at this time because the criteria for the conduct of elections are not there. The constitution is not available.” he added.
He further cited the guidance of the constitution to the election as it would determine the number of constituencies and the system of the government.
Minister Makuei said for credible constitution making which is a path to election, there was need for 24 months for it to be set according to the agreement.
“We don’t know how much time it will take. We gave this process 24 months to avoid coming up with other issues,” he stated.
The Government’s spokesperson further cited other factors that prevented the elections such as failure to repatriate Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons back to their place of origin citing it as one of the important elements of elections.
He further noted that the Unified Forces are not graduated and redeployed to protect the election process.
“The security organs are not in place because they are the ones that will protect the elections and if the security organs are not ready then definitely we cannot be talking about running elections without security organs in place,” Makuei underlined.
He emphasized the need for the peace soldiers to be unified and deployed to protect the elections.
“All these plus others are the reasons which justify elections because if we say we are going for elections in December, are we really competent, eligible for the election?” he questioned.
Makuei added that the extension was a decision by the parties’ signatories to the agreement for a credible election to take place.
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