The government of national unity will not be formed unless the transitional constitution is in place, the Minister of Information has said.

Michael Makuei says this is a new demand from the SPLM in Opposition.

It is unclear when the parties will have the constitution in place.

But Makuei said the government was expecting that the unity government would be formed before the constitution is passed.

“We had agreed earlier that we go in for the formation of the transitional government of national unity without necessarily waiting for the constitution,” he told reporters after a Council of Ministers meeting in Juba on Friday.

“This is something beyond our position, and there is no way we can insist that it should be set up as long as they are saying ‘no’.”

On Thursday, the spokesperson of Dr Riek Machar told Eye Radio that the interim government of national unity would be formed only when Dr Riek Machar has returned to juba.

However, he said Dr Machar would not come to Juba if the interim constitution is not yet formed, and if the government has not revoked the decision to create the 28 states.

But Mr Makuei says the decision to split the 10 states is “irrevocable”.