Kiir says ruling SPLM faction has no ‘significant’ challenger in 2023 elections

JUBA – South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit has said that the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) led by him has no any significant challenger in the general elections slated for end of the transitional period in 2023 saying his party is on course of winning the election by a landslide.

This comes after prominent opposition leader and chairman of the National Democratic Movement (NDM) Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin said last week that the South Sudanese head of state has no chance of winning any democratic elections that is free and fair given the history of what it calls destruction and death since it took power in 2005.

This, Akol said last week in a tweet, is because the SPLM party has been in power for around sixteen years and has not delivered anything but wars and corruption which he said does not warrant him a win at any election conducted in a free and fair environment.

“A party in power for 16 years with no record in service delivery to the people, only corruption and civil wars, has no chance in a free and fair election. Living on the past has a limit. Even the mud fish (Luth) eats its tail for survival only once,” Dr. Akol who is also the Secretary-General of South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA), said.

However, speaking before community leaders in Juba on Sunday evening, Kiir praised the SPLM party for bring ‘change’ in the country and for its historical struggle to achieve the independent of South Sudan from Sudan saying none of the opposing parties in the government do not have good refutation before the people of South Sudan.

“They are not trusted by our people because they take up arms to kill the people, how come you expect people to love you. The SPLM’s achievements are not secret, they are known anywhere in the country and known to every citizen including the young people,” Kiir told the gathering.

“All in all, the SPLM party do not have a significant challenger during the elections and it is just matter of time before we form a government that will be the government of people, not a government where people comes in through the force of gun, that they killed our people yesterday and they come back to serve them, serve who?” he asked.