Anne Itto, acting secretary-general of the faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement loyal to Salva Kiir (SPLM-Juba) has announced plans for the SPLM National Convention to be held in January next year.

Itto says registration for the convention will be held beginning from the boma level next month. The other factions of the movement are yet to comment on this move.

Loyalists of Salva Kiir have been pushing for elections next year because Kiir’s term in office as president ends in July 2015. In order for him to contest as the SPLM party candidate, first he would have to be reelected as chairman of the party.

To hold an election without first holding an SPLM Convention would potentially be a blow to Kiir’s legitimacy because the 2008 SPLM constitution stipulates that a convention must be held to elect the Chairman of the party.

The party’s 2008 constitution also stipulates that party conventions must be held every five years – a deadline that has already passed.

Other than an election, Kiir’s only apparent legal alternative is to seek through parliament a constitutional amendment that would extend his term in office without requiring a poll.

This option has not been widely discussed in South Sudan itself but it is implicitly the default option considered at ongoing peace talks in Ethiopia. Any peace deal made there is likely to have constitutional implications, which would have to be ratified by parliament.

Speaking on Radio Miraya on Wednesday, Anne Itto said that the purpose of the January 2015 conference would be to hold elections for the party leadership and approve party documents.

“The convention is a time where we, number one, elect our leaders, and number two, pass our basic documents,” she said.

The National Convention is nominally the highest organ of SPLM, but it has met only twice since the movement’s founding more than 30 years ago.

The party’s 2008 constitution describes the Convention as “the highest organ of the Party as established under this Constitution” and “the supreme political organ of the Movement.”

The party constitution also stipulates that a convention cannot be held without a quorum of at least half of the delegates of State Congresses.

Related:

Factbox: Factions of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (21 June)

Analysis: Political dimensions of the South Sudan crisis (5 March)

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