SPLM says opposition parties have enough political space to conduct rallies

By Simon Deng

The Secretary for Political Affairs, Mobilization and Organization for the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), Santo Malek Anai on Wednesday said that there is no systematic restriction of civic and political space in the country.

“SPLM is committed and other political parties are doing their programs, for instance, we have SSOA, especially the party of Gabriel Changson Chang, they went to langasuk and mobilized their people and they conducted their rallies freely without interference. Also, the SPLM-IO has been conducting rallies across the country in North Bahr el Ghazel, even in Warrap and also in Western Bahr El Ghazel, in Malakal and recently in Maban in the first week of March 2024,”  Anai said in an interview with The Dawn.

Anai revealed that the government has made progress in terms of implementing the revitalized peace agreement, adding the government is preparing to begin phase two of cantonment and training of the unified forces.

 “We are going to deploy the unified forces to take charge of security, we cannot preempt that the election is going to be violent, people should not be scared, all the political parties are going to talk so that we keep the spirit of the roadmap,” he said.

Anai appreciated the agreement reached between the European Union and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in August 2023 to support the creation of an enabling environment for elections.

He also said that the blocking last week of members of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement -in Opposition (SPLM-IO) from travelling to Panyagor, Twic East County of Jonglei State had nothing to do with the restriction of political space.

Anai said the fact that the leader of the People’s Liberal Party leader, Peter Mayen Majongdit has already declared running for the presidency in the upcoming elections and the formation of a new party led by Izza Muzamil Senbit demonstrates political will for allowing the opposition to mobilize without restrictions.

“In regard to funding, we are just waiting for the opening of the parliament which is going to happen by the first week of April 2024, the government will be ready to fund all institutions, Political Parties Council, National Elections Commission and National Constitutional Review Commission,” he said.

 “We are going to pay, we are not going to wait for friends to fund all these, the financing of the election itself is one of the priorities of the government, we are beneficiaries of election and we need to conduct it peacefully and it is to be fair and credible,” he added.