Martin Elia Lomuro, the Cabinet Minister of South Sudan’s government led by Salva Kiir on Tuesday declared ten representatives of political parties ‘illegal’ and announced they are ‘not allowed’ to participate in peace talks in Addis Ababa.

This comes on the eve of the scheduled date for resumption of peace talks in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, under the auspices of the East African IGAD regional organization.

SPLM-Juba and SPLM-IO, the two main warring factions, were expected to take part in the peace talks, while the roles of SPLM-Leaders, SPLM-DC and other parties of the Political Parties Leadership Forum (PPLF) were yet to be made clear.

A group of the PPLF parties tied to SPLM-DC last week announced the nomination of seven of their members for participation in the upcoming peace talks and the exclusion of one of their members, Cabinet Minister Martin Elia Lomuro of the Democratic Forum, over his ties to the SPLM-Juba faction of Salva Kiir and his attempts to allegedly intimidate the group and take over its leadership.

The PPLF group at a press conference accused Lomuro of ‘intimidation,’ making ‘careless allegations,’ ‘blackmail,’ and lying. They joined together to release a statement rejecting his leadership of the group and his involvement in their position paper on the peace talks.

In response to this and ‘provoked’ by it, the Cabinet Minister held a press conference Tuesday to announce that many of the politicians that signed this statement are ‘illegal’ and “not allowed to operate in the political affairs of this country.”

Referring to the statement by the PPLF, Lomuro said, “We looked at the document and from the analysis we conducted it became clear…  we know that there are only 16 registered political parties in the Republic of South Sudan.

“Out of these 16 some of them have divided themselves into several factions. And those which divided themselves some of them have been claimed by individuals and yet they have not held a conference – a national conference to legitimize themselves as chairpersons of the factions.”

“And so with regards to the constitution and the law – the Political Parties Act – these factions are illegal, and are not allowed not even to participate in the PPLF let alone to go and participate in the peace talks.”

He continued, “We also noticed that amongst the parties that signed the document claimed by 18 political parties, 10 of them were illegal. Some of them are factions of individuals who wish to register a party, because they defected or splintered from the other political party, and therefore have no legitimacy unless they hold for a national conference. Others call themselves representatives without authorization from the legal chairperson of the party.”

Lomuro claimed that several parties are historically “Khartoum-based” and therefore “if they wish to participate in political affairs of the Republic of South Sudan they must present a certificate of de-linkage.”

This certificate would presumably only be obtained from the government.

He went on to directly accuse the opposition parties’ seven delegates to the Addis Ababa peace talks of operating without the permission of the government and therefore illegally.

Of the seven members selected by the PPLF to participate in the peace talks, he said, “Six of them are illegal… The only person who is legitimate is Dr. Lam Akol himself.”

Hon. Martin Tako Moyi, for example, he said is not the legitimate chairman of the United Democratic Salvation Front (UDSF), alleging “as far as we are aware now, he is illegal, and not allowed to operate in the political affairs of this country.”

James Aniceto of NDP is linked to “James Mabor, who has rebelled, with Riek Machar,” and therefore is “equally illegal.”

NCP led by Bishop Gabriel Jur is a “a Khartoum-based party,” he said, declaring that the party needs to produce a “certificate of de-linkage.”

DUP led by Albino John Laku he also described as a Khartoum-based party saying they need also such as certificate.

“How can these people represent political parties when they themselves are terribly illegal?”

“This must be recognized and an urgent step taken to rectify the situation in order to make the peace talks orderly and meaningful with the participation of legally registered entities – not individuals who wish to be political parties but are actually not.”

On the other hand, he claimed that Joseph Ukell of USAP “represents the political parties in the team of the Government of the Republic of South Sudan.”

PPLF is yet to respond to the Cabinet Minister’s remarks, and it remains unclear how the announcement will affect the peace talks. Last month the opposition UDF politician Peter Sule was blocked by the government from traveling to Addis Ababa.

Related:

Kiir's cabinet minister Martin Elia excluded from opposition platform (25 July)

Political parties reject President Kiir’s ‘red line’ (26 June)