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South Sudan revokes EALA nominations

Wednesday June 14 2017

South Sudan has revoked the nomination of its nine members to the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), official said.

The nine were appointed through a presidential decree and were confirmed by the National Assembly in March 2017.

However, the head of the Committee of Legal Affairs in the National Transitional Legislative Assembly in Juba, Mr Dengtiel Ayuen, raised a motion to withdraw the parliamentary approval after a court in Tanzania rejected their swearing-in.

READ: South Sudan picks nine members for EALA

The members include Dr Anne Itto, Dr Gabrial Garang Aher, Mr Gai Deng Nhial, Mr Joseph Ukel Ubango and Mr Issac Aziz Justin.

Others are Mr Gabriel Alaak, Ms Adil Elais Sandrai, Mr Thomes Dut Gatkek and Mr Gideon Gatpan Thoar.

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All the nine were stopped from taking the oath office to officially become members of the regional assembly.

Unmet provisions

Mr Ayuen acknowledged that there were some provisions for sending members to EALA, which South Sudan had not adhered to.

“Though the Republic of South Sudan sent it members to Assembly in March 2017, it turned out that some basic requirements of treaty were not satisfied,” he said.

The provisions which were not met include at least one-third women representation and the election of the members in the National Assembly.

“Our list had only two honourable women. Our Transitional National Legislative Assembly didn’t have a basic law on election of the EALA members to guide it,” he alerted the lawmakers.

Mr Ayuen further cited Article 50 of EALA on Election of Members of the Assembly, which states that: “The National Assembly of each Partner States shall elect, not from among its members, nine members of the Assembly, who shall represent as much as it is feasible, the various political parties represented in the National Assembly, shades of opinion, gender and other special interest groups in that Partner State, in accordance with such procedure as the National Assembly of each partner state may determine.”

Consequently, the Speaker of the South Sudan House, Mr Anthony Lino Makana, allowed parliament to revoke the nomination of the nine members, adding that it would form a six-member committee to inform it about the EALA election law.

The Juba lawmakers were Wednesday expected to discuss the legal provisions for appointing members to the regional assembly. 

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