18 January 2010
South Sudan Party to Contest All Gubernatorial Posts
JUBA, South
South Sudan’s ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) will field candidates for governor in all of Sudan’s 26 states during the upcoming elections in April, Secretary General Pagan Amum announced Sunday.
The national elections are a key milestone in a 2005 comprehensive peace agreement that ended a two decade war pitting the then rebel SPLM against the Arab-dominated national government in Khartoum.
The SPLM has nominated Yasir Arman, a northern Muslim, to face President Omar al-Bashir in the presidential election.
The semi-autonomous South’s leader Salva Kiir, who also serves as Sudan’s first Vice President and chairman of the SPLM, has chosen to concentrate on retaining his current post as President of South Sudan. [PE]