By John Agok
Members of Civil Society Taskforce and Media managers on Thursday concluded a two- day workshop sloped towards analyzing the new road map in relation to The Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS).
The road map creates an opportunity for National Election Commission (NEC) and Permanent Constitution to conduct civic education in preparation to general elections which should happen before the end of transitional period in February 2024.
Lorna Merkaje who was a senior facilitator in this seminar told this publication that, the purpose of the training was to create a public awareness about the similarities and differences between the new roadmap and the previous R-ARCSS as well as to expose ways forward for both international communities and political players to breathe life to this roadmap
“The main purpose of having this two-day discussion among civil societies and media is to analyze the roadmap and R-ARCSS and recommend to both international communities and political actors the ways forward. This roadmap extracts some chapters within R-ARCSS and highlight similarities and differences”, she said.
The lady facilitator however, criticized the roadmap saying it focusses only on six chapters which gives it some salad to advance inadequate political will.
“This roadmap only recognizes six chapters which identify activities without deadline for completion. Roadmap lay out benchmarks to be implemented in 24-month period”, she added.
She further doubted the roadmap which she says was not formed on the basis of public consultation thereby focusing it only to the direction of elections and permanent constitution making process while ignoring other imperative chapters including Chapter five of reparation and compensation process.
“I am not optimistic on the roadmap since it focuses only on Elections and permanent constitution, leaving out reparation and compensation chapter which is crucial to me”, she concluded.
The training brought together over 50 participants to discuss entry points, gaps in the roadmap regarding key provisions of the R-ARCSS.
