By Philip Buda Ladu
Parties to the Revitalized Peace Agreement and roadmap are set to finalize signing a document to determine the conduct of the December 2024 elections.
The presidency will endorse the document and unveil it on Monday, next week.
Chairman of the High-Level Standing Committee for Revitalized Peace Agreement and Roadmap Implementation, Hon. Tut Gatluak Manime briefed the media about the progress made.
Tut, who is also the presidential security advisor, disclosed that the committee is finalizing a document on the review of the roadmap implementation.
“Today, we have met and discussed all the provisions in the revitalized peace agreement, and the purpose was to evaluate the implementation of the peace deal,” he told reporters on Friday
He emphasized that they made the evaluation, and all parties to the 2018 peace deal have agreed on what has been completed, ongoing, and pending.
“We agreed that any work that holds implementation to bring peace and stability to the people of South Sudan must be reviewed and completed,” he continued.
Tut stated that they, as parties, have also agreed that they will submit the evaluation report to the presidency next week on what has been implemented.
“We parties signed the agreement and blessed what had been achieved and what is not yet implemented, and we have all seen the impact of the deteriorating economic situation and climate change,” he expressed.
“We hope next week we will submit it (the document) to the presidency to go through it and come up with the final decision,” Tut added.
Cabinet Affairs Minister, Dr. Martin Elia Lomuro supplemented Hon. Tut’s statement.
He affirmed that they have agreed to meet on Monday afternoon as a committee so that all the parties can finalize the discussions, clean up the document, and provide a way forward.
“I hope that by Monday we will sign up for the full document, and then we will present it to President Salva Kiir for him to now call for the meeting of the presidency,” he stated. “I think this is good progress; the meeting has been cordial, and we are all together in this as we move towards December 2024.”
Late last month President Salva Kiir reiterated his stand on the conduct of elections, saying the absence of the exercise could generate violence in the country.
Not to overlook the concerns of other political parties, the SPLM chairperson noted the initiation of an inter-party dialogue to decide the fate of polls.
He urged the high-level Standing Committee for the implementation of the revitalized agreement and roadmap implementation to spearhead the process which has seemingly been a closed-door discussion.