Riek Machar, the former vice president of South Sudan who was sacked last week, has said that he now wants to challenge President Salva Kiir for the leadership of the country’s ruling party and then run for president himself in the 2015 elections.
Kiir dismissed Machar – alongside the rest of his cabinet – in a televised statement on Tuesday 23 July, following an apparent power struggle within the South Sudan government which analysts believe has been going on for months.
Kiir also sacked the head of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), Pagan Amum, as well as 17 police brigadiers.
Machar said he accepted the president’s decision to fire him. He stressed the legality of Kiir’s actions, told people to remain calm, and not give the president the opportunity to declare a state of emergency.
“This is a constitutional mandate of the president to remove and form a government. This is within the powers of the president. There should be no violence,” he said.
Machar nevertheless condemned Kiir’s failure to appoint a new government immediately after sacking the cabinet, causing a “vacuum” of power.
He announced at a press conference in the capital Juba that he now plans to run for the chairmanship of the ruling party, the SPLM, before the forthcoming elections, South Sudan’s first since its 2011 independence.
“I have told my colleagues in the politburo that come the next elections in 2015, I would contest those elections,” Machar said.
Meanwhile Abgon Agao, South Sudan’s leading civil servant, said the president would appoint a new cabinet “very soon.” He said he believed that a “good number” of sacked ministers would be reappointed to the cabinet.
Image: machar.jpg
