South Sudan Presidency Rejects UN Conducting Future Elections
Wednesday 5 November 2014
November 4, 2014 (JUBA) – South Sudan's government said it would not accept
future elections or a census to be conducted by the United Nations, arguing
it would undermine national sovereignty
"South Sudan is a sovereign country with sovereign institutions. If there is
going to be elections, they will have to be organised by the people of South
Sudan," presidential spokesperson Ateny Wek Ateny told Sudan Tribune on
Tuesday.
"The role of the international community, including the United Nations,
should be limited to support," he added. Ateny reiterated the government's
plans to hold elections in 2015 in accordance with the transitional
constitution.
The government is seeking to reinforce its legitimacy to run the affairs of
the country should it fail to reach an agreement with rebels under the
leadership of former vice-president Riek Machar on the formation of a
government of national unity.
"The people of South Sudan will conduct elections in 2015 as planned and the
role of the international community will play for democratic purposes is to
support the process, but if they do not [provide] support, any sovereign
country can organise its own elections and this is what will happen," Ateny
said in an exclusive interview with Sudan Tribune.
Ateny was reacting to a proposal by the country's rebel faction that was
seeking for future elections and census to be conducted by the United
Nations in order to ensure credibility.
The comments come days after the head of the election commission told
governors that the international community was not willing to support the
conduct of the elections, although the government had asked states to make
preparations.
South Sudan's rebel faction is opposed to the general elections and census
being conducted by the government.
"The conduct of [the] census and elections during the transitional period
should be led by the United Nations for credibility and wider acceptance for
its final results," the opposition group said in its 3 November resolution,
a copy of which was obtained by Sudan Tribune.
The group has also indicated that any transitional government formed should
be led by the president as the head of state, with the prime minister as
head of government.
"The duties and responsibilities of the president and prime minister shall
be negotiated in the peace process. The existing structures that are
national, state, and local shall be deemed dissolved on the day the
president and prime minister are sworn in and shall be reconstituted as per
power-sharing ratios as agreed upon in the peace agreement," the group
proposes in its resolution.
According to the rebel faction, the leadership agreed to engage the UN,
Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and troika countries on
the renewal of the mandate of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan
(UNMISS) and to expand the composition of peace keeping forces.
The opposition further called for the withdrawal of the Ugandan and Sudanese
rebels it alleges are fighting alongside government troops in the country,
saying their presence goes against an IGAD communiqué to heads of state and
governments.
"In the light of the deployment of the IGAD protection force under UNMISS'
new mandate, we renew the call for the immediate withdrawal of Uganda
People's Defence Forces (UPDF) and Sudanese rebel groups from the territory
of the Republic of South Sudan," the document states.