Peter Lam Both challenges exclusion from SPLM convention
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Eye Radio
Peter Lam Both, a former SPLM secretary-general, accuses the party leadership of blocking his selection as a delegate to the National Convention. He says officials rejected several compromises proposed by members of Ulang, in Upper Nile State, according to Eye Radio.
Peter Lam Both, a former secretary-general of the SPLM, the ruling party in South Sudan, is challenging his exclusion from the selection of delegates to the National Convention. He says party members in Ulang County, in Upper Nile State, chose him to represent them, but party officials refused to validate his nomination.
Lam Both accuses SPLM Deputy Chairman Simon Kun Pouch and Secretary-General Akol Paul Kurdit of blocking his candidacy. He also says two proposals intended to settle the dispute and prevent divisions among Ulang members were rejected by the party’s high-level committee.
The former Minister of Roads and Bridges said he had asked his supporters not to allow the dispute to divide them. According to comments to Eye Radio, he would rather withdraw from the selection than weaken the party’s unity, but plans to take his complaint to SPLM President and South Sudanese President Salva Kiir Mayardit. The officials named did not respond to Eye Radio’s requests for comment before publication.
The dispute comes as part of the SPLM’s selection process linked to the December elections, after the party opened applications on 3 October and announced on 18 October that it had received 848 applications for its primaries.
