JUBA – South Sudan’s controversial opposition commander General Simon Gatwech Dual who attempted to remove First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny in August as Chairman and Commander in Chief of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM/SPLA-IO) has claimed that the Revitalized Agreement for Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS) is ending tomorrow Sunday, September 12, 2021.
Following the Kitgwang Declaration on August 3, 2021, General Gatwech, General Johnson Olony Thabo, and General Thomas Mabor Dhol said they have given President Salva Kiir Mayardit until September 15, 2021, to remove Machar from the position of the First Vice President. The holdout SPLM-IO commanders claim that the transitional period would end on September 12.
They have also made an apparent threat to return the world’s youngest country to war upon failure of the president to remove Machar from the position and based on the claims, we answer the question by many citizens on social media asking as to when the transitional period is coming to an ending.
When is the transitional period coming to an end based on the revitalized peace agreement?
The revitalized peace agreement was signed on September 12, 2018 by President Salva Kiir, on behalf of the government of South Sudan, Dr. Riek Machar, one behalf of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO), Gabriel Changson Chang, on behalf of South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA), Deng Alor Kuol, on behalf of the SPLM-FDs, and Peter Mayen Majongdit, on behalf of the Other Opposition Parties.
According to the deal, a transitional period of thirty-six month should have commenced eight month into the signing of the revitalized peace agreement, proceeded by a pre-transitional period that commenced on the date the agreement was signed. According to the agreement, the pre-transitional period starts on September 12, 2018, and ends on May 12, 2019 after which the transitional period begins.
The agreement provides for the amendment of the deal if two-third of the party signatories to the deal consent to that and on May 3, 2019, just nine days before the end of the pre-transitional period, the parties met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and decided to extend the pre-transitional period for six more months ending on November 12 making it a pre-transitional period of one year and two months. It was not made clear if the parties were to extend the pre-transitional period again.
However, in a meeting between President Salva Kiir and SPLM-IO Chairman Dr. Riek Machar at Entebbe, Uganda before regional heavyweights in November 2019, the formation of the unity government was yet again delayed for three more months. But senior opposition and government officials said at the time that the latest extension of 100 days will be deducted from the transitional period and here, we assume that the transitional period of 36 months begun on November 12, 2019.
As a conclusion, the transitional period commenced on November 12, 2019, though the parties formed the government the following year, February 22, 2020 for the appointment of the First Vice President Machar, and March 23 for the formation of the Reconstituted Transitional Government of National Unity.
By this, the transitional period would end on May 12, 2022.
When is elections supposed to take place?
According to the revitalized peace agreement, “Sixty (60) days prior to the end of the Transitional Period, the National Elections Commission (NEC) shall organize elections in accordance with the provisions of the Permanent Constitution, adopted pursuant to this Agreement, and shall ensure that the outcome is broadly reflective of the will of the electorate.”
This means elections are meant to take place two months before the end of the transitional period which will be anytime in February 2022. But given the indications as from comments of senior government officials, elections won’t take place until 2023 or even 2024.
