Salva Kiir Mayardit, SPLM chairperson | Credit | Eye Radio

The chairperson of the ruling SPLM party has directed the National Liberation Council to amend the party’s constitution to pave way for the replacement of non-active members.

President Salva Kiir on Friday opened a two-day meeting of the party’s liberation council – aimed to restructure the party and regain the “power which we lost following the conflict.”

Kiir recommended that the party’s constitution be amended to approve the replacement of members who died, defected or are incapacitated.

The head-of-state said the step should be considered as recommended by the SPLM secretariat in the states and the three administrative areas.

“The NLC need to approve the replacement of members of the NLC who died, defected or incapacitated with the recommendations of the SPLM in the states and the administrative areas,” Kiir said.

He also called on the council to approve the expansion the nominees as per the list of 2008 and add a few members to represent the states and the administrative areas in the political bureau.

The SPLM-IG chairperson demanded for powers to fill the vacant position of the deputy chairperson.

“The NLC should empower the chairman to fill the position of the deputy chairman,” he said.

Among other things, President Kiir directed the council to discuss and approve the SPLM’s basic documents that include Code of Conduct, the disciplinary procedures, and the financial management rules and regulations.

“Convening the NLC is for SPLM to renew itself and regain the power which we have lost through compromises and sacrifices for the sake of peace”, he explained the purposed of the two-day meeting.

“We gave up our positions and resources to accommodate our adversaries at the expense of our cadets. Today we want to strengthen the SPLM cadets so that they can take up their responsibilities with confidence and without being undecided.”

In October, an SPLM Political Bureau meeting, chaired by President Salva Kiir passed the resolution to scrap the membership status of the two opposition leaders.

According to the interim SPLM Secretary-General, the party decided to restructure itself and fill in positions previously held by Dr. Machar and Amum because they formed their own parties.

In response, the main opposition group had stated that the decision by the ruling party to expel Machar and Pagan is factional and unilateral.

SPLM-IO said the ruling SPLM party has no authority to dismiss former leaders of the SPLM, when the reunification has not been done.