According to the PCCA, Kiir’s ‘dictatorship’ began with the removal of ‘elected’ Machar in 2013.

The People’s Coalition for Civil Action (PCCA) says the last time the people of South Sudan exercised power was on 9 July 2011 when one of the democratically elected lawmakers proclaimed South Sudan’s independence, and President Salva Kiir Mayardit began deviating from legitimate governance to dictatorship when he sacked Dr. Riek Machar Teny in July 2013.

Kiir nominated Machar, his incumbent first deputy in the SPLM Party, as his running companion for the presidency and said that he would stay his chosen Vice President if they win.

“Before you were Dr. Riek Machar Teny. “He’s my running partner, and if we win, he’ll be my Vice President in the Southern Sudanese government,” he told thousands of cheering fans.

In 2012, Machar vowed to compete for SPLM party chairman and president in the 2015 elections. In a 23 July reshuffle, Kiir fired Machar.

He suspended SPLM Secretary General Pagan Amum Okiech for subverting the government. In December 2013, a dispute at a governing party conference sparked skirmishes and fractures in the army, launching a civil war that killed nearly 500,000 people.

Ethnic Dinka soldiers backed Kiir, while Nuer soldiers supported Machar.

In a statement marking 11 years of South Sudan’s independence, the PCCA said the first exercise of popular will was when South Sudanese went to the polls to decide if they should be a separate country in January 2011 and the last was when elected representatives proclaimed independence on July 9 that year.

“On January 9, 2011, we went to the elections to inform our rulers in Khartoum that we wanted to rule our own country. Our wish was granted,” declared PCCA.

“The second time we asserted our free choice was on July 9, 2011, when the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly declared independence and we rejoiced with the world.

Our power ended,” the statement said. The statement said President Kiir began his dictatorial exercise by dismissing his elected Vice President Machar and the elected Secretary-General of the SPLM Pagan Amum in July 2013. It said these actions were not taken with the will of the people who elected them to power and the violence erupted in December 2013 to undermine the people’s will.

“On July 23, 2013, President Kiir dissolved the government, sacked his vice president, Dr. Riek Machar, and suspended an elected party secretary-general.

These measures went against the desire of the South Sudanese people, the statement claimed. Five months later, violence erupted.

These activities were designed and implemented to disrupt the popular and democratic aspirations of the South Sudanese, the report said.