A political analyst has questioned the willingness of political leaders to compromise on the number of states and their boundaries.

The number and boundaries of the states are among the tasks that were meant to be completed within the pre-transitional period but so far, there is not agreement yet.

On Tuesday,  a meeting between President Kiir and opposition leader Dr. Riek Machar in Juba ended without a break-through on the number and boundaries of states.

The two principals agreed to refer the matter to the Deputy President of South Africa, David Mabuza who has been mediating between the parties.

Early this month, the cabinet affairs minister, Dr. Martin Elia called on parties to the peace agreement to end what he termed is “political game” on the number and boundaries of states.

But a political commentator believes the parties do not want to make a decision because they fear reactions from citizens.

“The issue of the number of states is still contentious, telling you you that they don’t want to take the decision, they want somebody else to take the decision on their behalf then afterwards they will tell the people it was not them but somebody who took the decision,” Dr. James Okuk said.

In November, President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Dr. Riek Machar extended for the second time the pre-transitional period to February next year to  allow for the completion of the remaining tasks.

“If they wanted to take the decision they would have taken it without waiting for an outsider to come and take that decision on their behalf,” the political commentator added.

He said the main signatories in the new peace accord should demonstrate willingness to reach a compromise to demonstrate willingness on the peace deal.

“They need to build a consensus, if they have to form the government of national unity and if they failed to reach a consensus it means they are blocking the implementation of the agreement.”

In addition to the number of state and their boundaries, the parties are yet to implement critical parts of the security arrangements such as assembling, screening, reunifying and deploying forces.

The ten states were adopted by the CPA and enshrined in the 2005 and 2011 Transitional Constitutions.

The 2015 Peace Agreement, which later collapsed, had maintained the ten states, but President Kiir later created the 28 and 32 states through decrees.

The creation of more states in 2015 by the incumbent government was meant to counter SPLM-IO’s 21 states, which it based on the colonial districts of the then Southern Sudan region.