South Sudan Presidency (Photo: Courtesy).

Civil society activist Edmund Yakani is calling on the Presidency to decide on whether elections can be conducted with or without implementation of some of the provisions including census and a permanent constitution.

The peace parties have often voiced different views on the planned general elections.

While the SPLM In Government insists elections will be held as scheduled in the peace road map, the SPLM -In Opposition has expressed reservations over the process citing pending pre-requites.

Edmund Yakani, the Executive Director of Community Empowerment for Progress Organization said the remaining time before elections requires the presidency’s urgency to convene a meeting and agreed on a unified position.

He said offering a timely political decision through consensus on the pre-conditions for the elections will help the elections commission plan and design a calendar.

“The Presidency needs to meet now and make some political decisions to make the work of these (electoral) institutions easy. Are we going for an election with the constitution, or without the constitution, what type of security arrangement do we need?” he said.

“The electoral commission is not going to find easy work, why? Because they need political decisions to tell them they are going for elections without a population census.”

“Finally, the commission rolling out its activities, all these priorities can be delivered if enough money is put into the safe of the electoral commission. They can do miracles in a few months, as long money is there.”

The revitalized peace agreement mandates the Transitional Government to organize elections sixty days before the end of the Transitional Period to enable the establishment of a democratically elected government.

In his New Year message, President Salva Kiir called on opposition and the hold-out groups fighting the government, to return and join in the electoral process.

Meanwhile First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar said in a meeting with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan head that despite his party’s readiness for elections, the country is not prepared for the democratic exercise.

Dr. Machar stressed the need to fulfill the prerequisites of the elections to ensure a fair, free, credible, and transparent electoral process.

These include the party’s repeated call for full implementation of security arrangements, repatriation of refugees and IDPs to their places of origin, the conduct of population censuses, the establishment of a permanent constitution, and the provision of funds for activities leading to the elections, among others.