Three members of the Democratic Change (DC) party in Central Equatoria State have resigned and pledged allegiance to the National United Democratic Front (NUDF).
In an interview with The City Review, Abraham Lado, the former member of the National Executive Committee and the former Secretary-General of Administration and Finance of the DC party attributed their exit to lack of vision, the mission in the party.
He claimed that the distribution of positions in the party was only favouring one tribe while ignoring others.
Lado said there was no democracy within the party, arguing that they chose NUDF because of its efforts towards democracy.
“We have been observing [and realised that] the relationship among the members of the party had been worsening and [ this affected] the implementation of the revitalised agreement on the resolution of conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS) in the distribution of positions,” he said.
Lado said they were all the members of the party in Central Equatoria State who had switched allegiance and not the leaders alone.
“The Democratic Change Party has lost its vision, mission and purpose as to have peaceful united democratic and prosperous South Sudan.
“The party has become a tribal enterprise where the decisions of the minority are highly valued than the majority and democracy is less practised as decisions are (made) by two people in absence of majority.”
The letter further clarified that the National United Democratic Front acknowledged democracy through respect of the voices of the majority.
“Therefore, we as members of Central Equatoria State have decided to seek another alternative to further our political interests by taking this step to submit our resignation letter to Democratic Change Party,” the letter read.
“Wherefore, we have decided to join the National United Democratic Front under the wise and able leadership of Kornelio Kon Ngu because of the way the leadership of the party is run where democracy is the priority and the decision of the majority is highly respected and its vision is clear.”
General election
In 2016, Dr Lam Akol resigned from the party leading to his replacement with the current party chairperson Onyoti Adigo Nyikwec.
In September, the Chairperson of the Democratic Change Party (DCP), Onyoti Adigo Nyikwec, urged the parties to the Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan to expedite the implementation of the agreement instead of rushing to discussions about general elections.
He said it was meaningless to talk about elections when the necessary steps towards elections were needed.
“It is in the agreement that we are to hold elections at the end of the transitional period which is before 2023 but that does not mean that if tomorrow is 2023, we have to go for elections. We have a lot to do first,” said Onyoti.
“We have the agreement that we are following. Everyone needs to respect the agreement and you cannot try jumping from here and there when you have not finished what is in front of you.”