South Sudan Courtesy

The parties to the revitalized peace agreement will likely constitute the full state governments by next week, the government ‘spokesperson has said.

The formation of the complete state and local government structures is still one of the contentious tasks yet to be addressed.

“We are almost reaching the end of the road,” Michael Makuei declared. “We will now be in a position to establish all the state and local government institutions and the other remaining national institutions.”

President Salva Kiir –with nominations from the parties –has only appointed state governors and their deputies, except for Upper Nile state.

The parties have also agreed on power-sharing in the three Administrative Areas of Pibor, Ruweng and Abyei.

But they are yet to finalize on the responsibility sharing at various local government levels or nominate individuals to occupy these positions.

The 2018 peace deal stipulates that the former government shall have 55 percent at the state and local government levels, SPLM-IO shall have 27 percent representation.

The South Sudan Opposition Alliance or SSOA shall have 10 percent; while the Other Political Parties or OPP shall have 8 percent.

Mr. Makuei, the national minister of information said the parties are in “the process of implementing the peace agreement [and] I hope that by next week we will be in a position to establish all these.”

The previous agreement reached by the parties also stated that there shall be 10 deputy governors.

During the establishment, President Salva Kiir’s group shall nominate 3, Dr. Riek Machar’s party shall nominate 3, while SSOA shall nominate one, and OPP shall nominate 3 deputy governors.

There shall be five Advisors for each state.

They also agreed to appoint 17 ministers for each of the states.

President Kiir’s party shall nominate nine, Machar with five nominees, two from SSOA and one from the OPP.

There are currently 9 appointed state governors, and 3 Chief Administrators, with no state cabinets and other local government officials.