The Executive Director of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) Edmund Yakani on Thursday called for consensus and compromise among the parties on critical pending issues to guarantee free, fair and credible elections.
“I think until there is consensus between the President and the First Vice President, we cannot really find a pathway that is soft for the conduct of elections, if we do not get consensus between the top leaders of the country who are signatory to the revitalized peace agreement, this election is going to be violent and rigging is going to take place,” Yakani told Juba Echo in Juba.
Yakani was among the civil society members who attended Thursday’s launch of the civic education project by the Episcopal Church of South Sudan (ECSS).
“There is high deficit in trust and confidence between the President and the First Vice President in transitioning the country from the current situation to a peaceful situation and that has kept the country hostage,” he added.
Yakani revealed that there is a new trend of deadly communal violence in the greater Bahr El Ghazel region which does not augur well for the ongoing efforts to hold election in December this year.
“Pockets of deadly violence are now coming up, some of the violence is politically motivated, the political leaders of the country need to discipline some of their friends who pretend to be friends while they are warmongers,” Yakani said.
He called on the parties to the revitalized peace agreement to speed up the pending unification of forces, the constitution making process, population census and also repatriation of refugees and internally displaced persons to their areas of origin.
