The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition, led by First Vice President Dr Riek Machar Teny, will have to wait for longer to have a new deputy chairman to replace Henry Odwar who defected to the Kit-Gwang group.
The group was expected to elect a new deputy chair at its 4th National Liberation Council meeting held on Thursday but this did not take and the meeting continued yesterday in an undisclosed venue.
On Wednesday, the SPLM-IO Director for Information and Public Relations, Puok Both Baluang, told The City Review that the party intended to fill all the vacant seats including the docket of Henry Dilah Odwar.
However, on Thursday, after the one-day National Liberation Council meeting, Baluang revealed that the meeting managed to fill the vacancies in the National Liberation Council but the positions of deputy chair and other top positions in the political bureau (PB) remained vacant.
“We have finished with the filling of vacancies on the National Liberation Council for all states, and currently, we are listening to the reports from the states and administrative areas, and we are still here, but the appointments of the deputy chairperson are still pending, although it is one of the agendas remaining,” he said, as the party continued to deliberate on the way forward.
Mr Baluang added that “Yes, it is on the agenda, but again, it depends on time whether the deputy chairman can be announced today, and we still have some vacancies within the political bureau (PB).”
Contacted after the meeting on Thursday, Baluang said: “Some agenda was adjourned, but that will be discussed tomorrow, but not in the hole; it will be discussed at party level and the resolutions will be out tomorrow.”
He added that “today we finished the reorganizations of National Liberation Council (NLC) and also listened to reports from the state chairpersons regarding the issues of security areas and many more others”.
Has to wait for longer
After being holed up in another lengthy engagement to fix the party structure yesterday, Mr Baluang said the party had not confirmed the new deputy but promised they would soon announce the new deputy chair after all the necessary protocols have been observed.
“No, the deputy chair was not yet appointed. Not only does the deputy chair need to be appointed, but some top positions in the political bureau (PB) are yet to be announced, ” he said yesterday.
“The reason is that our constitution says for someone to hold positions like deputy chairman or in the political bureau (PB), they must be a member of the NLC. Since the NLC has been restructured, it is they who sit and appoint the top vacant positions, including deputy chair and it will be confirmed once it is done,” Baluang said.
However, he reiterated that it is something that would not take more days for the party to solve.
He added that what was important was that the party restructuring which involves other pertinent areas such as installing the 25 state chairpersons and with their deputies.
Defection
In August 2021, Henry Dilah Odwar, who was the deputy chairperson of the SPLM-IO, stepped down from leading any position within the revitalised transitional government of national unity.
In the brief resignation letter, Odwar said the move is effective Wednesday, August 11, 2021.
“With effect from today at 24.00hrs, Wednesday, August 11, 2021, 1, Henry Dilah Odwar resigns from being the Minister of Mining,” read the letter addressed to President Salva Kiir.
He did not provide any reasons for his resignation.
However, an official from the SPLM-IO told local media in Juba that Mr Odwar has been sick over the last several months adding that he was receiving treatment abroad.”
Odwar was appointed as the national Minister of Mining in March last year after being nominated by the SPLM-IO.
Speaking on Thursday during the party’s event, the First Vice President, Dr Riek Machar, who is the leader and the chairman of the party, emphasised the need for following party ideas. Machar urged his subjects to be prepared to champion the agenda of the party given the mooted 2023 elections.
However, they cautioned against the excitement of the 2023 general election talk, saying it would take a 21-month-long radical surgery, encompassing the implementation of the pending chapters, to usher in an election.
Some of the areas he touched on included security and the graduation of forces, which he said were pertinent for the preparations.