People want both President Salva Kiir and Dr. Riek Machar to step down for the country to have a successful transition, the National Dialogue report has recommended.
The final national dialogue report was released this week a month after the national conference was held in Juba in October.
According to a copy of the document obtained by Eye Radio, the national dialogue steering committee says the two leaders must not take part in the elections if they are running against one another.
The report stated that South Sudanese at the grassroots — it consulted are deeply aware of the leadership failure and the political deadlock which has dogged this country for a long time.
“Grassroots they demand that both President Kiir and Dr. Riek Machar must leave politics if South Sudan is to ever move forward,” said the report.
“In light of the predicament the country is in, the demand of the people that South Sudan has a better chance of a successful political transition if President Kiir and Dr. Machar were to step aside, is quite understandable,” the report added.
However, it suggests a carefully considered transition to avoid any resultant chaos, cautioning that an abrupt or poorly planned resignation of both of them could be destabilizing.
The report says one of the options is to consider the stepping down of the two leaders immediately — if it is acceptable to the people and both leaders.
The second option, it suggests, is for President Kiir and Dr. Riek Machar to continue with the precarious transition as provided for in the revitalized peace agreement and they should agree not to run in the next elections after the transitional period.
Furthermore, the report says the two leaders must commit not to extend the current Transitional Period and that there needs to be an elected government at the end of the three years.
According to the National Dialogue Steering Committee, the transitional period under the revitalized peace agreement is not succeeding.
The peace deal was signed two years ago but not much has been accomplished.
This, they say is a clear indication that the revitalized agreement is already failing.
On elections, the National Dialogue recommends the non-participation of President Kiir and Dr. Machar.
The report says: “No transition or arrangement in which President Kiir and Dr. Riek Machar take part together will succeed. We believe that the most patriotic thing for them to do is to prepare for their exit from politics with the honor, dignity, and legacy of having been the founding fathers of the independent nation of South Sudan.”
The report also recommended that none of the four vice presidents in the unity government should take part in the coming elections, although they can participate in future elections.
Further, they say if the two leaders decide to stay on until the end of the Transitional Period, the unity government should be dissolved three months before the next elections.
It suggested that a prominent national personality be chosen by parliament to take charge of the country until an elected government takes office.
However, when contacted, the deputy head of information and communication at the national dialogue secretariat said this particular report was discussed on Tuesday but was not agreed upon by the members.
Chan Dhel disclosed to Eye Radio that members of the SPLM party in the National Dialogue Steering Committee have rejected the final report for including public views that call for the two leaders to step aside.
“The report after the discussion was rejected by the members of the steering committee who are actually members of the SPLM party,” said Chan Dhel.
“The report was rejected by members of the steering committee who are imminent people because they think that report should talk about the whole work of national dialogue from the beginning up to the end of the process. But should not include some resolutions that came out from the grassroots consultation like the issue of the president.”
He added that the national dialogue’s final report will not be given to the president.
“There are people who are calling the president and his first vice president not to contest in the coming elections. So in the end, they rejected this final report which is on social media now so it is not going to be given to the president.”
However, Eye Radio was not immediately able to get a response from the Office of the President as the known phone number of the press secretary was not reachable.
The President’s stated objectives for the National Dialogue were to end violent conflicts; reconstitute political consensus; save the
country from disintegration and foreign intervention; and usher in a new era of peace, security, stability, and prosperity.
For the National Dialogue process to fulfill its objectives President Kiir issued 12 objectives.
They include; End political and communal violence in the country; recommend how to properly transform the military; redefine and re-establish stronger national unity; restructure the state, and renew social contract between the citizens and their government.
Other is to develop a framework for managing diversity; Develop a mechanism for allocating and sharing resources; Settle social disputes and sources of conflict (cattle raiding, child abduction, communal violence, cattle, and human migration); Set a stage for an integrated and inclusive national development strategy.
It also says it should agree on steps and guarantees to ensure safe, free, fair and peaceful elections and post-transition; agree on a strategy to return internally displaced persons and refugees to their homes, and develop a long-term framework for national peace, healing, and reconciliation.
The President also appointed the Steering committee to facilitate this process of credible personalities and consensus builders to
facilitate the process and to develop the agenda of the dialogue.
The President gave the Steering Committee the power to take any additional steps to ensure the inclusivity and credibility of the
process.