Dr. Riek Machar, first vice president and SPLM-IO leader, in his office in Juba in July 2020 | Credit | James Gatdet

The SPLM-IO has identified representatives it will have appointed into local government positions at the state levels while the Opposition Alliance continues to consult, a senior member of the main opposition group has said.

Agok Makur Agok says officials have been named and the list presented to the committee in charge of states portfolios between the parties.

In June, the parties to the revitalized peace agreement agreed to the structures for power-sharing at the state level.

As per the peace deal, the former government shall have 55 percent at the state and local government levels and SPLM-IO shall have 27 percent representation.

The South Sudan Opposition Alliance or SSOA shall have 10 percent; while the Other Political Parties (OPP) shall have 8 percent.

They shall appoint deputy governors, ministers, commissioners and administrators.

“The state government will be formed soon. As you know very well there were committees in-charge of the distribution of states portfolios,” said Agok Makur, a member of the SPLM-IO Political Bureau and also the deputy minister of finance.

“Now these committees have completed their tasks, and now the parties to the peace agreement are arranging their houses for the final touches to hand over their lists of nominees for all portfolios.”

Meanwhile, the SPLM under President Kiir says it has already nominated its officials to the local government positions.

“We are also ready, and I think the leaders need to finalize things, otherwise we have been ready for a long time. SPLM nominated its representatives six months ago we don’t need another nomination,” Peter Lam Both, spokesperson, told Eye Radio.

However, the South Sudan Opposition Alliance says its officials are still discussing the nominations among themselves.

Wazir Michael, spokesperson, said:

“Till now in our group, we have not been formally decided on the nominations,”

There are currently nine appointed state governors, and three chief administrators, with no state cabinets and other local government officials.