‘Elected’ Machar’s 2013 sacking start of Kiir’s ‘dictatorship’, says PCCA

JUBA – The People’s Coalition for Civil Action (PCCA) has said that the last exercise of power of the people of South Sudan was on 9 July 2011 when one of the democratically elected lawmakers pronounced the declaration of the independence of South Sudan, and President Salva Kiir Mayardit started to deviate from legitimate governance to dictatorship when he sacked his election running made Dr. Riek Machar Teny in July 2013.

Speaking to residents of the capital Juba on February 24, 2010 while launching his election campaign for president of the semi-autonomous Southern Sudan, Kiir publicly announced that Machar, who was his incumbent first deputy in the SPLM Party was his running mate for the presidency and declared that he will remain his chosen Vice President if they win the election.

“Before you here I have Dr. Riek Machar Teny who was here before you. He is my running mate, and if we win the elections he will still remain my Vice President in the Government of Southern Sudan,” he told thousands of supporters who responded with long claps and ululations.

But starting 2012, the two men went into power struggle after Machar expressed bid to run for chairman of the SPLM party, thus presidency in an election then due for 2015. Kiir then sacked Machar in a government reshuffle on 23^rd July. He also suspended the SPLM Secretary General Pagan Amum Okiech accusing them of undermining the government.

In December 2013, violence erupted after disagreement at a national convention of the ruling party sparking clashes and splits within the army triggering the violent civil war that has so far killed around half a million people. The war has largely been fought along ethnic lines as ethnic Dinka members of the army supported Kiir, while their ethnic Nuer counterparts supported Machar.

In a statement marking 11 years of South Sudan independence, the PCCA said the first exercise of a popular will happened when the people of South Sudan went to polls to decide if they should have a separate country rather than remaining with Sudan in January 2011, and that the last exercise of was when elected representatives proclaimed the independence of the South Sudan on July 9 that year.

“The exercise of popular will happened on the 9^th of January 2011, when we went to the polls to tell our masters then in Khartoum, that our will was to become masters in our own land. Without a question, our will was granted,” the PCCA statement said.

“The second time we expressed our free will was the 9th of July 2011, on that sunny day in Juba, when men and women we elected to the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly issued the declaration of independence and we celebrated with the whole world. This was the end of our power,” the statement added.

The statement said President Kiir started his dictatorial exercise by dismissing his elected Vice President Machar and the elected Secretary General of the SPLM Pagan Amum in July 2013 and said that these actions were not taken with the will of the people who elected them to power and the violence erupted in December 2013 to undermine the people’s will.

“On the 23^rd of July 2013, President Kiir dissolved the government, fired his elected vice president, Dr. Riek Machar, dissolved the whole government, suspended an elected Secretary General of the party. These actions were taken against the popular will of the people of South Sudan and the entire nation became extremely nervous,” the statement said.

“Less than five months later, violent conflict ensued. These events were orchestrated and executed with the intention to subvert the popular and democratic aspirations of the people of South Sudan and to establish a dictatorship,” it added.