The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) said on Monday that funding shortfall forced the parties in the transitional government to extend the transitional period for additional two years.
“It is the issue that the government does not have the funds to run the elections. And if the government doesn’t have the funds to run the elections, what is it that SPLM can do single-handedly to run the elections? So I call on our members to support the decision of the leadership that we must extend for 24 months,” said Peter Lam Both, the Secretary General for the SPLM party during a press conference in Juba.
Lam revealed that the decision to extend the transition was reached after consulting with the National Constitution Review Commission, the National Bureau of Statistics, Joint Defense Board, and the Political Parties Council and the National Elections Commission.
“It became clear that some agencies needed six months to complete their work, others needed 12 months, the longest time was 18 months by the National Constitution Review Commission,” he said.
Lam said that the SPLM had initially been insisting on the conduct of the 2024 general elections.
“As a matter of fact, they don’t have money to pay the salaries of civil servants for nine months, and because of that reason, it became difficult now for us as SPLM to say to the people that let us go for elections when there is no money for it,” he said.
He disclosed that the estimated budget needed to implement critical pending tasks is at the tune of 800 million U.S dollars.
“We must look for money between now and February 2025 so that these mechanisms can do their work and the elections can take place in December 22, 2026,” said Lam.
