Chagor living on the edge as Jonglei gears up for new governor

Denay Jock Chagor could relinquish his position as Jonglei governor in a plan being muted between the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA) in the next couple of days.

This comes after SSOA agreed to swap the governor’s seat with that of the deputy.

His continued absence from the state is said to have contributed to the expected changes.

On Monday, the SPLM and SSOA agreed to solve the leadership void by trying to find options to address the simmering governance crisis in Jonglei State.

Minister of Higher Education Gabriel Changson Chang, who is a senior member of SSOA, said the changes were agreed upon after a thorough consultation between both sides.

According to the new arrangement, SSOA will take up a ministerial position in the National Government, a Special Envoy position, and be the deputy governor of Jonglei.

The new changes expected to be made by President Salva Kiir in the coming days could see Chogor kicked out of the seat and replaced by an SPLM member.

Sources within the ruling party indicate that current deputy governor Jacob Akech Dengdit is among the front runners for the seat.

He was appointed Jonglei governor on July 15, 2020.

Chagor, whose biometric data in his passport indicates his date of birth as 1986, though he insists that he was born in 1975, is a member of the South Sudan United Movement (SSUM), a group that is part of the SSOA coalition.

He has previously served as national minister of higher education (May 12, 2019–July 15, 2020).