Council for a Community of Democracies

Kiir Campaigns For Southern Presidency; South Sudan Allocated 40 More Parliamentary Seats
March 2, 2010
By: Randi Zung

On February 25, Reuters reported that South Sudan's President Salva Kiir toured the capital city of Juba to launch his bid for the South’s presidency. During his tour of the capital city of Juba, Kiir pledged that he would fight to end corruption and stated: “If I am elected back, I think things will be different from what has been happening these last five years.” Kiir, who is the current leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), is expected to win the southern vote. In addition, Kiir also remarked that he already had the support of other political parties in the South, citing that the rival parties had not appointed candidates to run against him. So far, the only candidate campaigning against Kiir is Lam Akol. Kiir has said that if re-elected, his current vice president, Riek Machar, will remain in office.

AFP reports that South Sudan was recently allocated 40 more seats in the Sudanese National Assembly in an agreement made between the SPLM and the north's ruling National Congress Party (NCP), following a dispute caused by contested census results. The SPLM contested the results on the basis that their population was undercounted. The number of parliamentary seats is determined by population distribution. The South contested the data because it could have resulted in the North having greater legislative power over the South. According to BBC News, Anne Itto, deputy secretary for the SPLM, stated that the party felt that the conditions of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) were under attack.

While Kiir is running for the top political office in the South, junior member of the SPLM, Yasir Arman, is running for the presidency for all of Sudan. Analysts believe that the party is more interested in establishing power in the South. As stipulated by the 2005 CPA, in 2011, a referendum will be held to decide whether the Southern region of Sudan will become an independent country. The 2005 CPA ended a two decade civil war between the North and South regions of the country. The peace deal expires in July 2011.

To view the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, please see:
http://unmis.unmissions.org/Portals/UNMIS/Documents/General/cpa-en.pdf

Sources:

BBC News - Sudan's SPLM reaches 'breakthrough deal' on poll

AFP - Sudan former foes strike pre-vote deal on contested census

Reuters - South Sudan's Kiir begins campaign for president

Previous CCD article about Sudan:

http://ccd21.org/news/africa/sudan_elections_in_april.html