A breakaway faction of South Sudan’s main opposition movement has officially registered as the IO Party after dropping the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO) name, the Political Parties Council (PPC) said on Tuesday, ahead of the country’s first national election since independence.
The registration gives legal recognition to the faction led by Peacebuilding Minister Stephen Par Kuol, which split from the SPLM-IO after opposition leader and First Vice President Riek Machar was detained in Juba in March 2025.
The PPC said the faction was among five political parties granted full registration after meeting legal, financial and regulatory requirements under the Political Parties Act.
“The Council has formally recognised and recorded the structural transition of the ‘SPLM-In-Opposition’ to its newly approved legal nomenclature, the IO Party,” the council said at a press conference, adding that the change had been entered into the national register.
The other newly registered parties are the National Democratic Movement (NDM), led by Dr. Lam Akol; the People’s Liberal Party (PLP), led by Peter Mayen Majongdit; the South Sudan National Movement for Change (SSNMC), led by Moro Isaac Jenesio; and the Revive South Sudan Party (RSSP), formed by Peter Biar Ajak, a political activist who is serving a federal prison sentence in the United States after pleading guilty in an illegal arms export case.
Speaking at a news conference in Juba, PPC Chairperson James Akol Zakayo said the registrations brought the number of legally recognised political parties in South Sudan to 36.
Zakayo said June 30 was the deadline for parties intending to contest the Dec. 22, 2026 election to complete registration, although the law allows political parties to register on a continuous basis.
“Those who want to participate in the election must be registered within the legal timeline before polling day,” he said.
The registration marks the formal political separation of Stephen Par’s faction from Machar’s SPLM-IO, one of the principal parties to South Sudan’s 2018 revitalised peace agreement that ended a five-year civil war.
The SPLM-IO faction emerged in April 2025 after senior SPLM-IO officials aligned with Stephen Par announced an interim leadership following Machar’s detention in Juba. President Salva Kiir’s allies subsequently recognised the new group as their counterpart in implementing the 2018 peace agreement.
Machar remains in detention in Juba and faces treason charges. His supporters reject the accusations and say his arrest undermines the fragile peace process.
The party registration comes as South Sudan steps up preparations for elections scheduled for Dec. 22, 2026, the country’s first since it gained independence in 2011.
The National Elections Commission announced the date on June 22, saying it had complied with the legal requirement to declare polling at least six months in advance.
However, the commission has warned that funding shortfalls, legal inconsistencies and delays in implementing key provisions of the 2018 peace agreement could hamper preparations.
While Kiir’s government insists the election will proceed as scheduled, several opposition groups, including Machar’s SPLM-IO, argue that critical benchmarks, including security reforms, constitution making and the unification of forces, have yet to be completed, raising concerns about whether the conditions for a credible vote are in place.
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