Tensions have risen over ongoing primary elections organised by the ruling SPLM in the Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA), with a faction of party delegates accusing the election management team of bias and favouritism.
The SPLM has been conducting nationwide party restructuring and candidate nominations ahead of the planned December general elections. The process in GPAA, led by Nadia Arop Dudi, a member of the party’s Political Bureau, has been under way for about two weeks but was suspended on Friday over what officials described as technical challenges.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Sunday, a group of senior SPLM cadres said they opposed Nadia’s leadership of the high-level delegation overseeing the primaries, accusing her team of lacking impartiality.
The group accused the SPLM Congress Organising Committee in GPAA of favouring one candidate and colluding with the caretaker chief administrator to undermine the process and secure victory for its preferred candidate.
The group includes former deputy chief administrator Joseph John Abulla, Hakim Ngandonyo Ngache, Joseph Longole Vero, Jiji Paulino Moru, Peter Baba Kaka, Jacob M. Korok and Baba Isaac Nyathi.
Joseph Logelo, a delegate from Likuangole, accused the committee of deliberately preventing 21 elected delegates from his area from participating in the planned nomination of the GPAA SPLM chairperson.
“Delegates from Likuangole were blocked by the National Security from accessing Pibor town on the orders of the caretaker government, sparking tensions that I intervened in and resolved last week,” he said.
He also questioned the neutrality of Beko Konyi, a former SPLM state secretary-general, accusing him of supporting former chief administrator Gola Boyoi Gola while serving as a technical adviser to the election committee.
Logelo further accused Caretaker Chief Administrator Joseph Boyoi Ngare of colluding with the committee to support Gola.
He alleged that security forces had intimidated party delegates in Likuangole and Pibor town and contributed to insecurity in Vertet and Likuangole.
The group called on the SPLM National Secretariat to replace the election management team, including Nadia, Konyi and Boyoi Ngare, with a neutral and independent committee to ensure a credible process.
Korok Logelo, a delegate from Jebel Boma County and former lawmaker, alleged that the committee was seeking to replace delegates with individuals loyal to Gola, who is seeking a position in the party’s internal elections.
“Twenty-one delegates from Jebel Boma County have been in Pibor town without food or shelter after arriving three days ago following the conclusion of our primaries. Because they are perceived as not being loyal to Gola Boyoi, Nadia and her committee left Jebel Boma, possibly to handpick those who will support their preferred candidates,” he said.
“We asked to travel back with them, but we were removed from the plane. We were intimidated and threatened that we would be beaten if we complained.”
He called for the committee’s replacement and a fresh electoral process to ease tensions in the area.
Nadia Arop Dudi, Beko Konyi and GPAA Information Minister Jacob Werchum were not immediately available for comment.
In an earlier interview with Radio Tamazuj, Werchum said the GPAA government had been facilitating the SPLM activities but that the programme had been affected by technical challenges.
“As for the GPAA government, we had been facilitating their activities. So their programme was affected by technical challenges related to the election process,” he said.
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