South Sudanese ruling party officials are planning to hold a national SPLM convention on the same dates and at the same venue as a heated party meeting held in December 2013 that led to the outbreak of war.

The SPLM convention will be held 12-14 December at the Nyakuron Cultural Centre. In interviews, loyalists of the SPLM faction headed by President Salva Kiir declined to explain the choice.

A power struggle took place at the SPLM Liberation Council meeting held in Juba in December 2013 two years ago. Riek Machar had announced his intention to use the SPLM Convention to oust Kiir democratically.

On 14 December, the SPLM chairman declared his deputy Machar guilty of “indiscipline, which will take us back to the days of the 1991 split.” Kiir’s keynote speech culminated in the singing of a war song in his native tongue.

Mark Nyipuoc, deputy speaker of the national legislative assembly, says the upcoming SPLM convention aims to chart a path towards restructuring the party and to pass the constitution of the party, its manifesto, and sets of guiding basic rules and regulations.

These rules were the subject of contention in 2013 in part because of provisions regarding the powers of the chairman and how he is chosen by the party.

In an interview today, Nyipuoc said the party also needs to carry out self-assessment. “Time has come to look to ourselves and reflect deeply to see what has happened, where we have gone wrong and what we can do differently to change the situation we are in.”

“If it means restructuring the SPLM leadership so that it could be reorganized and realign our strategic goals and objectives towards meeting the vision of the SPLM, we will do it. There is nothing which can stop us from doing it,” said Nyipuoc. “The leadership is ready for introspection and preparations have now started.”

The leading member also denied that the Arusha reunification agreement was facing problems, pointing out that Pagan Amum and several other members of his group have already been reinstated either into their positions in the party or regained their membership.

“There is no problem with the Arusha reunification agreement. Most of the key issues have already been addressed. You know, Pagan Amum, has been reinstated into his position as the secretary-general and those who were either members of the political bureau or the national liberation council have regained their membership. Those in the country are free to participate in the leadership meetings as they were before,” Nyipuoc explained.

Akol Paul Kordit, head of the youth wing of the faction loyal to Kiir also said the convention would be an opportunity to allow the members and the leadership to discuss how they can work together to resolve issues of internal restructuring and reorganization.

“The purpose of the meeting is to discuss and pass the basic documents, which are important to us as SPLM leaders and members. The members of the extraordinary convention after deliberations will approve the manifesto, the constitution and the basic rules and regulations.”

Akol noted, “These deliberations will take place at Nyakuron Cultural Center on 12th - 14th December.”

The party official said participants of the meeting will be those members elected when the party in 2008 conducted its nationwide congresses and its opening session will be open to members of the public.

He did not say whether the convention will first incorporate key provisions agreed in the Arusha reunification agreement, including the removal of the power of President Salva Kiir to appoint 5% of the delegates from each level of party structure to the convention as well as removing and replacing the traditional voting systems of the show of hands with secret ballot.

He also did not comment on the selection of dates on exactly the anniversary of a similar gathering in December 2013 just prior to the escalation into armed conflict.

John Luk Jok, former justice minister and a spokesperson of the SPLM “Former Detainees” said he hopes the meeting would be an opportunity for the leadership to fully implement the Arusha reunification agreement and the regional brokered peace accord.

Luk, who recently returned from exile to Juba, avoided commenting on the question of inclusiveness of the meeting given the continued exile of Pagan Amum and the SPLM-IO.

File photo: Salva Kiir delivers a speech on 16 December 2013