Election Assessment of Candidates for Governorship of EES in 2010: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- E.E. State Needs a Neutral Candidate That an aspiring candidate for the position of Governorship in a socio-politically troubled State like EES can be scrutinized and valued as a “100 % quality candidate”, is something to be considered false, unrealistic and scandalous... 16 January 2010 By Lino Marcello Lokang With the revelation of the names of the SPLM candidates aspiring the position of governorship in the soon-to-be general elections, tensions and disenchantment have gone high in some States on the ground that the Electoral Colleges have not been fair and impartial in the process. Hence, it is a confirmed truth that the SPLM PB, being the high legal organ to decide on the fitness of candidates under its ticket, has received plenty of complaints from different States, denouncing the lack of transparency and fairness, alleged to have taken place in the process of the scrutiny. Obviously, the degree of the tensions and disenchantment fluctuate from State to State, depending on the outcomes. The full truth can be known when the PB thoroughly examines, investigates and evaluates all the complaints, and subsequently issues official pronouncement regarding its position and possible course of action. As far as tension and disenchantment are concerned, Eastern Equatoria State has experienced a matchless and incomparable level of manipulation and fraud in the pre-electoral assessment of the candidates. The Electoral College is predominated by pro- Louis Lobong allies and loyalists and tactically manipulated the results of the assessment by according to him the score of 100 % points, over the other two candidates, H.E. Ubuch Ujwok 81 % and H. E. Alesio Emor Ojetuk 81 % respectively. That an aspiring candidate for the position of Governorship in a socio-politically troubled State like EES can be scrutinized and valued as a “100 % quality candidate”, is something to be considered false, unrealistic and scandalous to the highest point. This is only possible in a corrupt, dictatorial and heavy-handed system where fairness, transparency and impartiality are far-flung and alien principles. It is a serious situation, which the PB needs to urgently address and invalidate these pre-electoral assessment results, and then another round for a transparent and fair process. Unless it is handled with extreme care, the situation is potentially in grade of stirring up protest, tension and antagonism that may lead to deadly conflicts in the State, given the already volatile circumstance. As EES earnestly waits for the next Governor, it is quite relevant to the scope of this article to embark on evaluating and exploring with spirit of objectivity the general situation of the State in regard to the economic, social and political growth; and security within the context of Ojetuk’s governorship in the last four years. It is an important approach that aims at offering to the electorate a clear portrait of the status quo and platform basis for discerning carefully who to vote for in the coming elections. Further, it is a normal practice and inscribed right of the citizens to have a say on all the candidates, through scrutiny, evaluation of their policy and mission agenda, and subsequently opt where to cast one’s vote. Based on the empirical reality, EES appears to be undergoing very tough moment of crisis in a broad sense of the word. Critics and analysts in both social and political spheres, attribute the genesis of these crises to the governor’s bad leadership style, whereby tribal oligarchy, dictatorial and despotic power monopoly, favoritism, tribe-against-tribe conflicts instigation, corrupt decisions are structurally permeated in the system of the governance. To govern unchallenged, the governor concentrated all the power in his hands, tactically distanced all those perceived as possible threats to his leadership; and surrounded himself with close relatives, loyalists, faithful allies and sycophants of all traits. Needless to say, he and his team are said to have enriched themselves by amassing wealth and material good at the expense of the economic and social development of the population in the State. In term of development, EES can be rated among the least in the whole of South Sudan. Despite the loop-sum of money being yearly allotted for developmental projects and programs, the State has barely achieved anything tangible under Ojetuk. The communication system is scandalously poor, unlike in other States where a lot have been achieved already in that regard. The roads connecting Torit, being the main City, with other towns are still miserable and impracticable during rainy season. There were promises that construction of main roads would begin shortly, but since then nothing has happened, thus leaving most of the citizens deluded and sceptical regarding the governor’s commitment of Ojetuk to maintain his word. Basically, the State can’t anymore tolerate such loose promises and repugnant lip-service. The next governor must be in grade of changing things and lead the state into a new era of development and prosperity. Of all the existing crises, tribal conflicts- which in many situations have led to deadly fighting- are the most worrying situations the current governor has utterly failed to resolve and eradicate by taking pragmatic measure to guarantee peaceful co-existence and harmony. Worst of all, some of the tribal conflicts which resulted in great loss of lives in the State are viewed by the general opinion as side-effects of his bad leadership, characterized exceedingly by tribal politic, calculated marginalization of other ethnic groups; and systematic implementation of the “divide and rule” by creating antagonism among the tribes. In this sense, everything leads to hold the conviction that he is not anymore fit to be re-elected as the governor. He has demonstrated a very meagre and scarce leadership ability, promoted tribal-oriented politic and system of governance, contributed upper –handily in fomenting tribal conflicts and hostilities; and did nothing to effect the badly needed development in the State. In any serious political elections – whereby interested candidates contest and try to convince the voters - this kind of candidate is to be considered to have totally lost credibility and standing against canvass. He can pack up and go! Similarly, under the leadership of Louis Lobong, as the Chairman of SPLM, the State has witnessed unprecedented internal conflict, division and disunity among the party members, resulting from his deliberate promotion of tribal and favouritism driven policy. It is a widely known truth in the EES community that he has systematically sidelined and marginalized the SPLM members belonging to the “unwanted” tribes in term of power sharing and equal opportunity; and single-mindedly ordered the physical elimination of those perceived as his potential opponents. Like Ojetuk, Lobong has predominantly filled up the SPLM high leadership organ in the State with his close relatives, sycophants and those whom he can easily manoeuvre in the decision-making. The effect of this “predomination” can be straightforwardly seen in the recent result of the pre-electoral assessment of the SPLM candidates, which attributed to him an outfit of 100 scores. It doesn’t require extraordinary intelligence quotient to concur on the conclusion that the Electoral College is manipulatively managed by his allies and Loyalists and intentioned irreversibly to promote him to the office of the governor at the expense of the other candidates. This obvious fraud has already sparked up feral grumble and protest in the State, and the situation can escalate into something worst if the SPLM PB doesn’t promptly take action by dissolving the extant Electoral College, invalidating the results and forming a neutral and non-tribal-led electoral college to ensure transparency and even-handedness in the process. In the light of this intricate and complex situation, EES needs to elect a candidate who can put things in order and resolve the socio-political jumble and mishmash created by the current loose leadership under Ojetuk and Lobong, in their respective spheres of responsibility and duty. Logically, the need for “someone” else to take over the governorship presupposes the stance that neither Ojetuk nor Lobong are fitting candidates as far as the situation is concerned. Both of them have committed the grave error of promoting tribal politic and causing inter-tribal disunity, which turned out to be detrimental to the State’s security and stability. In this perspective, H.E Ubuch Ujwok stands out to be the right candidate for the governorship, who can solve the many problems besetting the State, ranging from insecurity to under-development, disunity within the SPLM party members to inter-ethnic conflicts etc. Unlike the two “unfit” candidates – who have upper-hand responsibility in the problems, Ubuch enjoys the credibility and integrity of assuming a neutral stance in front of all and playing effective role in bringing about the ardently invoked unity among people. Electing either Ojetuk or Lobong would simply mean re-establishing the status quo and protracting for other 4 years the excruciating condition of suffering and anguish being faced by the population. More importantly, the SPLM PB would make a wise choice by nominating H.E Ubuch as it candidate to contest for the governorship against the candidates of NCP and other parties in EES. Considering the high level of competition between the parties aspiring this position, it is absolutely in the interest and benefit of the SPLM PB to focus on a candidate who can attract more votes and above all in grade of fulfilling faithfully and competently the expectations of the plebiscite, which in the case of our troubled and poverty-stricken State, can be summed up synthetically in six major areas: socio-economic development, equality in power sharing, legality and rule of law, security and safety measures, peaceful co-existence among tribes, and unity within the SPLM party in EES. If the GoSS and SPLM are truly committed to guaranteeing and implementing all these ideals, then H.E Ubuch Ujwok is the appropriate candidate to be focused on! The author can be reached at: lokang50@gmail
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 16:16:24 +0000