South Sudan Presidency (Photo: Courtesy).

Civil society activist Edmund Yakani has applauded the Presidency  for directing 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.

“I strongly appreciate it. I welcome it and I congratulate the leaders to the country for making that technical decision because  if you want elections at the end of the day, is not the decision of the leadership politically,” he said.

The Tuesday’s decision came as the SPLM and SPLM-IO parties presented what the High-level Standing Committee described as two extreme views.

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 Cabinet Affairs Minister Dr. Martin Elia Lumoro, the Presidency directed the High-Level Standing Committee to develop a realistic timetable for the parties to agree on when elections should be conducted.

Edmond Yakani emphasized that holding free, fair, credible, and peaceful elections requires a well-coordinated approach among various institutions.

“It is the decision of the institutions that are entrusted with the legal mandate to decide on a practical and functional timeline for us to hold free, fair, credible and peaceful elections.”

Yakani also noted the need for political parties to complete their registration processes, particularly those that have, had military wings.

He says the Political Parties Council must ensure that all registered parties comply with legal requirements, including the elimination of military affiliations.

“When you  come to political parties Council they(unregistered parties) need to register. Any of this party to R-ARCSS that does not have any more  military wing should register because the law says you can’t register a party that has a link to a military unit,” he said.

Yakani mentioned that the new law has increased the number of constituencies from 102 to 158.

He stressed the importance of the National Bureau of Statistics in determining the time required for producing accurate population data for the constituencies.

“Now the national elections commission need to delimited constituency because I remember, we had only 102 constituencies during our 2010 elections. This new law has created 158 constituencies.

“So, you need to have population censuses to do delimitation of those 158 constituency and that  means NEC needs to work with National Bureau of Statistics.”