![South Sudan first vice president and SPLM-IO leader Dr. Riek Machar (L), and Mabior Garang de'Mabior hold a press conference on July 8, 2015 in Nairobi [Photo via Getty Images]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sudanspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/gettyimages-480210760-2048x2048-1.jpg?quality=89&ssl=1)
Mabior who is now a member of the SPLM/SPLA (IO) Kitgwang faction said people should not be deceived into believed that the powerful opposition leader was elected democratically in Nasir in 2014 following the outbreak of the civil war as leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army in Opposition, but was only selected to serve in the role temporarily.
“The intellectual mercenaries of Dr. Riek Machar was “democratically elected” in Nasir. This procedural process should not be sold to our people as democracy. He was only ‘selected’. To call this process democracy is mischief!” Mabior said in a statement seen by Sudans Post this morning.
Mabior has recently made comments castigating Machar for surrendering the main armed opposition group to Juba, accusing unnamed advisors to the first vice president of fooling the SPLM-IO leader to what would end up as a detention center for him as to the evidence that he is not allowed to move within the country’s capital.
General Gatwech Dual, the former SPLA-IO military chief had attempted in early August to remove Machar as the leader of the SPLM-IO. He made this public in a communiqué following a three-day gathering of top opposition commander among whom is General Johnson Olony and Thomas Mabor Dhol.
The attempt had resulted into continued opposition infighting following a surprise attack by Machar-allied forces on Magenis, General Simon Gatwech’s headquarters, in an attempt neutralize his power-base as he commands thousands of forces in Northern Upper Nile state that are opposed to Machar.
