A team from the SPLM party in Juba arrived in the Kuajok town of Warrap State on Saturday ahead of the acting secretary general’s visit to the area.

The SPLM team from Juba was led by Mr Jacob Aligo.

Speaking to reporters upon arrival in Kuajok, Jacob Aligo said the purpose of their visit is to brief the communities on the progress made in the implementation of the revitalized peace deal.

“The team is coming to share, disseminate the messages of peace and enlighten the community on the progress of the peace agreement which has taken a positive turn,” Aligo said.

He added, “The other part of this mission is to prepare our structures and cadres to be ready for the upcoming elections. We all know that the elections are supposed to be conducted before the end of the transitional period.”

The team leader announced that the Acting Secretary-General of the SPLM Party Peter Lam Both will visit Kuajok on Monday, 25 April.

“The interim secretary-general will come on Monday to officiate the process, including training of SPLM cadres, and will conduct a public rally. The activities will last for one week in Warrap state,” Aligo said.

For his part, Longar Malual, Warrap State SPLM secretary described the visit by their national members as a significant step towards structuring the party at the local level.

“Their schedule is fine because it includes training and restructuring of the party and they will have a series of meetings with SPLM members in executive,” Malual said.

The September 2018 peace deal obligates the unity government to hold elections before the end of the transitional period to establish a democratically elected government.

In November last year, President Salva Kiir told the country that the much-anticipated general elections would take place as planned.

This is despite delays in the implementation of some key tasks such as the unification of forces, repatriation of refugees and the conduct of a population census.