South Sudan Presidency (Photo: Courtesy).

The South Sudan Presidency will meet on Wednesday to discuss a long-awaited report on 2018 peace agreement after which the leadership will find an amicable way to end the transitional period, the cabinet minister said.

The High-level Standing Committee consisting of the SPLM, SPLM-IO, SSOA, OPP, and FDs, has been reviewing the progress and challenges facing the peace implementation and will suggest a solution to the uncertainty surrounding preparations for the December elections.

This comes as an August 2022 Peace Roadmap extending the transitional government’s legitimacy for another two years is set to elapse, with the transitional government scheduled to be dissolved by 22^nd September 2024.

Dr. Martin Elia Lomuro, a senior member of the committee, said the slated presidency meeting will deliberate on  proposals submitted by each of the five parties on the status of the two-year peace roadmap and how the end the transitional period.

He said the committee completed its analysis and proposals will be the subject of discussion by the presidency meeting due for next Wednesday.

“The high-level standing committee completed its analysis of the implementation status and agreed on the way forward and the agreement on the way forward is that every part of the agreement would provide its own version of the way forward,” he said, during a Plenary Meeting of the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (R-JMEC) on Thursday.

“The (parties) have provided their proposals as to how we should proceed from there. Unfortunately, I am not able to provide a detail because it is a subject of discussion of the Presidency on Wednesday so you will have to wait until that meeting is concluded.”

As South Sudan is expected to usher in a democratically elected government by December 2025, the unity government and the electoral body have since released contradicting statements on the conduct of first-ever elections.

According to the National Elections Commission, the polls will be conducted in December 22, 2024, but the government spokesperson said elections will be determined by the leadership based on the outcome of the Tumaini Initiative and a report on roadmap evaluation.

There have been growing doubts over the possibility of the conduct of elections due to pending tasks in the 2018 peace agreement.

These include the security arrangement, permanent constitution, registration of voters, political parties, and candidates, as well as the training of electoral officers and civic education.