By Kidega Livingstone
South Sudan African National Union (SSANU) has declared their readiness to participate in the forthcoming election scheduled for December 2024.
The Acting President of SSANU Party Bol Toby Maduot affirmed that the party members are now not only in all parts of the nation but also in the diaspora, including the United States of America and Canada.
“President Kiir said the election should take place. As the South Sudan National Union party, we are ready because we are all over the ten states and the three administrative areas,” Toby declared their position on the first-ever elections.
He spoke to journalists yesterday upon his return to Juba from medical treatment in the United States after he sustained an injury in the recent East Africa inter-parliamentary games held in Kigali, Rwanda.
“We shall meet with the ambassadors of the Troika countries so that we are all on board for the election,” he noted.
Mr. Toby urged all the members of the South Sudan African National Union Party to report back to their various offices in the States and the national secretariat in Juba.
“We have a lot of preparation, not only for the election but for future democracy. As we are preparing for the election, there is a lot that needs to be done,” he stated.
The SSANU acting president was, however, not clear enough on their stand to contest for the presidency in the coming elections.
He revealed that they are preparing to meet the Speaker of the National Legislative Assembly, Rt. Hon. Jemma Nunu Kumba, to discuss the implementation of other outstanding provisions in the peace agreement.
Felix Sunday Khemis, the Secretary General of the South Sudan African National Union Party, said SSANU was formed in 1963 by politicians Saturlino Ohure and William Deng Nhial in Uganda.
The exiles moved back to Kampala in Uganda in 1963 and shortened the movement’s name to Sudan African National Union (SANU).
Joseph Oduho was the first president of SANU (1962–1964). The new name was designed to show solidarity with other African nationalist movements of the period.
In the late 1960s, the party contested elections in Sudan, seeking autonomy for southern Sudan within a federal structure.
The exile branch of the party, meanwhile, supported full independence. A party with this name was represented in the Southern Sudan legislature in 2008.