Jonglei’s acting governor returns as uncertainty looms over future
November 5, 2013 (BOR) – The acting governor of Jonglei state, Hussein Maar Nyuot, returned to Bor from Juba on Tuesday morning in Bor from Juba where he went for official visit.
“If you guys want to interview the big man, forget [it] he is tired and doesn’t want to stand with anybody for any business. You see your way before he comes”, a security officer said while asking them to leave the airport. He warned that if they did wait for the acting governor they would “face the music”.
Maar left Bor two weeks ago after the Jonglei state parliament failed to vote for an extension of his interim period for another 60 days, to give him time to prepare for statewide gubernatorial elections.
On 22 October, the state assembly sat to discuss whether to extend the period of the deputy governor who acted as the state governor, following the resignation of the former governor Kuol Manyang when he was promoted to the become South Sudan’s minister of defence.
Although majority of MPs voted for an extension, the number of parliamentarians who voted for the extension did not reach the 75 percent needed for the vote to be valid as per the laws guiding the processes of the Jonglei state legislature.
The assembly recommended that elections be conducted to allow citizens to elect a new governor to replace Manyang.
A day after the sitting, the state speaker wrote to the national electoral commission to prepare and arrange elections in Jonglei.
Sources within the government said the failure of the assembly to approve the extension of his caretaker mandate had angered Maar.
The majority of MPs in the assembly expressed a wish that South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir appoint someone as caretaker governor of the state. Kiir sacked the governors of Lakes state (January) and Unity state (July) but no elections are planned for either state despite it contravening South Sudan’s transitional constitution that states that in such circumstances a fresh election must take place within 60 days.
Some MPs said the idea of asking the president to appoint somebody in the state was suppressed by the speaker of the state assembly and the Assembly Business Committee.
“We know that the elections will not be done in the state because of insecurity, impassible roads and lack of resources like and money and logistical problems. But since we were blocked from the point of asking the president to appoint somebody, we just voted for elections. We still recommended it when there was no decision taken after the results of voting. We did not want to have 60 days added for Hussein Maar to act”, Philip Thon Nyok the MP for Bor town told Sudan Tribune.
Many of Jonglei’s state ministers have been in the South Sudanese capital Juba lobbying for the position for themselves or for someone from their county, according to government sources.
It remains unclear whether the next governor of Jonglei will be elected by the people of appointed by the president.
Jonglei’s public appear divided over the issue with some supporting Hussein Maar to be made the governor, while others want a new face arguing that he did not achieve anything in his previous position as minister of information.
Maar now occupies three positions; the Jonglei state minister of information and communication, the deputy governor and the acting governor.
(ST)