Jonglei lawmakers call for speaker to resign
JUBA, May 31, 2012 –The parliament of Jonglei State has been split in a row over demands for the Speaker to resign.
A group of Members of Parliament (MP) are demanding that Peter Chol Wal resigns. Wal claims that their demands are unlawful.
“I think I have defeated them – I will not resign because six people, according to constitution of the assembly, cannot ask the speaker of parliament to resign” said Wal, citing the constitutional requirement of a two thirds majority vote of no confidence.
Philip Thon Nyok, the MP representing Bor town in Jonglei state parliament, who speaks on behalf of the group demanding the speaker’s resignation, said Wal is not doing enough to bring ministers into parliament to be questioned by lawmakers regarding their poor performances.
Nyok said that “we are rejecting the Speaker […] when we elected the Speaker it was in the SPLM [South Sudan’s ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement] caucus, it was not in the Assembly. Yes, if the Speaker is […] not calling the ministers, how do we know, as MPs, how the ministers are working? Is he doing well? Is he not doing well?”
He explained that the Speaker is also charged with calling MPs to parliament to be impeached, inform the community what is being done by the executive, but currently “we are kept blind”.
On May 8, a group of six lawmakers wrote to the Jonglei State governor, Kuol Manyang Juuk, calling for the Speaker to resign. The letter alleged 13 charges related to the state constitutional violations. Included in this was the claim that the Speaker had been intimidating MPs, administrative incompetence, financial malpractice and more.
In a interview on Radio Jonglei, Nyok said the prices of basic commodities in the state have rocketed, the market in the state capital, Bor, is flooded and the state hospitals have insufficient medical supplies. He accused some of the Jonglei MPs of not doing enough for the state.
(ST)