SPLM to change the way party candidates are selected

From SRS - Sudan Radio Service, Tuesday, December 1, 2009:

(Wau) - The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement says it will introduce stringent standards for the selection of party candidates who wish to run for public office in the forthcoming elections.

Speaking to SRS in Wau on Tuesday, a senior SPLM official, Edward Lino, said that the party will ensure that only competent people are selected.

[Mr. Edward Lino]: “We are going to change the way candidates are selected. A candidate must come from the area and people must know him or her well. He or she should be popular and must have the capacity to serve. This is not the time to appoint a baker as a Minister for Education or a tractor driver as the Minister for Finance. The time for such things has ended! We need candidates who can work for their country. We need strong people who are capable of two basic things: one they must work to create a sense of unity among our people and two, they must follow the policy of the movement – these are the basic requirements."

Edward Lino added that he is confident that the SPLM will win a majority of the seats in most constituencies within south Sudan in the elections which are scheduled for April 2010.