South Sudan's Minister of Petroleum, Puot Kang Chol. | Credit: Eye Radio.

The high-level committee on the implementation of the 2018 peace agreement said it has collected reports from electoral-related and security institutions to deliberate on them.

Petroleum Minister Puot Kang Chol spoke to the media on behalf of the committee comprising parties to the peace process on Thursday.

This came nine days after Presidency directed the electoral institutions to develop a ‘realistic’ timetable for the elections

These include the National Elections Commission, the National Constitution Review Commission and the Political Parties Council.

The decision followed what the High-level Standing Committee described as two extreme views between the SPLM and SPLM-IO parties on how to end the transitional period.

The SPLM and other parties maintained that elections be held as stipulated in the roadmap.

However, the SPLM-IO suggested that the democratic exercise be differed by 24 months to allow completion of the critical provisions of the agreement.

According to Minister Puot Kang, the committee received reports from the designated institutions including the security organs.

“We received reports from the election-concerned institutions, and we shall be listening to the institutions (and) the security institutions in the next meeting,” he said.

He said the committee is yet to analyze the reports, deliberate, and come up with precise and direct recommendations to be presented to the presidency.

” We appreciate it because they have responded to the questions… and we will go look at all of them and analyze it, and come up with a precise and direct recommendation to the leadership.

Meanwhile, Kang requests patience from the people of South Sudan as the committee works through this process.

“So, we are requesting the people of South Sudan and the old country and the region to wait.

In August 2022, the peace parties announced the extension of the transitional government’s legitimacy for another two years, and pushed elections to December 2024.

However, many critical provisions in the peace deal remain either unimplemented or in progress including the security arrangements, transitional justice and electoral preparations.