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Speaker suspends Lakes state parliament for 7 days, MPs reject closure
October 22, 2013 (RUMBEK) – The speaker of the Lakes state legislative assembly Speaker has ordered immediate suspension of the parliament after a group of MPs who signed a petition last week requesting his resignation or impeachment.
Out of Lakes state’s 49 MPs, 34 signed the petition accusing Speaker John Marik Makur of assembly mismanagement, malpractice and abuse of state’s constitution.
On Monday MPs were surprised by the deployment of Lakes state police services to inside the assembly premises without the permission of the parliament’s leadership.
Lawmakers claimed that the deployment of the police was aimed to intimidate the MPs who were attempting to impeach the Speaker.
Shadrack Bol Machok, who represents Wulu constituency said that Speaker Makur had coordinated with Lakes state’s commissioner of police to deploy the policemen as he feared the debate over the MPs attempts to impeach him could turn violent.
“The members were so surprise to see a vehicle loaded with heavily armed policemen and 12.7 machine guns entering the assembly which we suspect were sent to invade the assembly.”
He added that “even if the speaker beat anyone with his stick nobody could retaliate because that is not within our ethic of membership to exchange blows.”
“We will walk into parliament because such act to close the parliament is not lawfully – we are mandated to sit in parliament” said Bol.
lsla.pdfThe Speaker issued an order stating that the decision was made in “consultation” with the in light of the “crisis in the State Legislative Assembly”.
(ST)