The Political Parties Council (PPC) on Tuesday announced the allocation of 1.5 billion South Sudanese Pounds (SSP) obligatory funds to registered political parties. 

Eng. James Akol Zakayo Dhiak, the chairperson of the PPC, said that the allocation of the funds as per the provisions of the law is obligatory money for all the eligible political parties in South Sudan.

“The allocation of SSP 1.5 billion to eligible political parties is following provisions of Section 34 and 35 subsections 1(a) and (b) of the Political Parties Act 2012 as amended in 2022 and the Political Parties Council do hereby declare the allocation of funds for all the eligible political parties in South Sudan,” Akol said. 

He noted that the government recently released SSP 7.5 to the PPC for its activities.

“The council gets its funds from consolidated funds so we get our resources from the government. So, activities that have been addressed in the budget have to do with pre-elections activities so the funding that was allocated to us is to meet the pre-elections activities. We received USD 5 million, the equivalent of roughly SSP 7.6 billion,” Eng. Akol revealed.

He warned that the funds allocated to the political parties should be used under the provisions stipulated in Section 37 of the Political Parties Act and that the money shall not be used directly or indirectly to pay remuneration fees, rewards, allowances, or any other benefit to the members or supporters of political parties other than staff members.

“The money allocated to a political party from the fund shall not be used to finance or contribute to any matter, cause, and event or occasion directly or indirectly in contravention of any code of ethics binding on the public officials. Money allocated to political parties from the fund shall not be used directly or indirectly to establish any business or acquire or maintain any right for financial interest whatsoever in any business or any immovable property,” he explained. “Money allocated to a political party shall not be used for any other purpose incompatible with the promotion of multiparty democracy and the electoral processes or with the constitution.” 

Akol revealed that they have in their database 14 registered political parties and that 21 others have applied for registration but their application procedure was not in line with the requirements and they were told to follow the right procedures to complete their registration.  

He said they the yet to discuss the mode in which the money will disbursed to the parties.