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November 28, 2013 (JUBA) – The office of the first deputy chairperson of the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) party, Riek Machar has announced it will "soon" hold a press conference to address the nation on the party’s future and other pressing issues in the country.

South Sudan’s former vice-president Riek Machar (Reuters)

The event, according to a brief statement extended to Sudan Tribune on Thursday, will reportedly unveil resolutions passed against the actions of the party chairperson Salva Kiir, also South Sudan’s president.

"The date and venue for the said press conference will be soon announced", partly reads the statement.

It further revealed that the leadership of the SPLM Political Bureau (PB), comprising many of its senior figures, consulted on Thursday in Juba in a meeting chaired by the country’s former vice-president.

The meeting reportedly discussed at length the recent statement of the party’s chairperson, in which he announced that “the party had dissolved itself” because its structures ended their 5-year mandate in May this year, leaving only his office and the national secretariat functional.

Kiir also added that he had “all the powers” to form a special committee to organize the next activities in preparation for a national convention.

The dissolved structures would include the PB and the National Liberation Council (NLC).

Machar, however, reacted by saying the SPLM chairperson violated the constitution and on Tuesday warned that the other majority members of the PB would take action against the chairperson’s decision unless he reversed it.

The Thursday leadership consultative meeting reportedly decried the chairperson’s statement as a violation of the party constitution.

“We confirm that it is only the ordinary party congresses and the convention that dissolve the structures at each level”, the statement noted.

Also, details of further resolutions passed by the leadership against Kiir’s statement are expected to be availed during the press conference.

The office of the first deputy chairperson, in the statement, said all local and international media houses are invited to attend the event on a date and venue to be announced in "the coming days".

The statement also revealed that the leadership has already launched a lobby among the members of the national legislature to pass a resolution in parliament recognizing the outcome of the recent unilateral Abyei referendum.

It added they have also dispatched teams to the various states of South Sudan to share the message at the state and county levels.

(ST)