SPLM leadership in Warrap back removal of state governor

June 27, 2015 (JUBA)- The leadership of South Sudan’s governing Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) in Warrap state has issued a statement in full support of voices seeking the removal of incumbent governor, Nyangdeng Malek Deliech on grounds that she had completed her five year term in office, which needs no extension.

“The decision of the SPLM leadership in the state is grounded on number of issues. One of the issues brought up repeatedly is that governor operates outside institutional channels. She appoints the cabinet without carrying out prerequisite consultations with the leadership of the party whose ticket took her to the office. The other reason and which is one of the major reasons is that her administration has failed to render basic services to the people,” said Andrew Kuac, acting head of the SPLM in Warrap.

“She [governor] has turned the state into a private enterprise and does not stay in the state. She and members of her cabinet spends much of their time out of the state either in Nairobi, Kampala or in Juba”, he added.

These reasons among others attracted public protests against attempts to renew her mandate.

Meanwhile Gaetano Atem Lok, a state MP, said the recent amendment of the term of the state constitution was not done in accordance with the constitutional requirements.

Lok argued that parliamentary procedures and processes were not properly followed by the speaker.

“Any amendment to the constitution requires proper studies. It is never done in a rush. A period of one month is given so that the request is studied and scrutinize for actual debate begins. This was not done. The request was made within two weeks the members were recalled from the recess to come for the amendment without allowing one month period to elapse”, Lok explained in an inclusive interview on Saturday.

General Bona Bhang Dhol, a close ally of President Salva Kiir and chair of parliament’s committee on legal affairs in the state parliament, said his committee had noted a lot of inconsistencies to the constitution and subsequently recommended the leadership of the house to strictly follow the law to avert backlash from critics.

“We noted a lot of inconsistencies and subsequently made recommendations to avert backlash. We recommended strict adherence to the constitution. We advised the leadership of the state parliament to take note of the technical observation of the committee and take measures to comply”, explained General Dhol.

One of the violations of the constitution, he said, was the failure to respect constitutional provision which advocates for allowing period of one month for the study of the request before starting with the legislative process, including giving a specialize committee at least two weeks for preparation prior to starting of debate on a given subject matter.

The reason, he added, was to allow the committee to gather inputs from different stakeholders, including the general public to compile a report to accompany the request.

Achol Chier Rehan, former minister of parliamentary affairs in the state, also described the amendment of the constitution to extend to the term of governor Nyandeng as constitutional and therefore unacceptable.

“The influential woman politician urged the members of Warrap state public to stay strong, focused and determined. “I urge our people to stand with the SPLM leadership and members of parliament to rally their unconditional support behind the SPLM leadership and the members of parliament who stood in favour of the public interest and rejected the amendment of the constitution to extend the term of the current governor”, said Rehan.

She explained that SPLM leadership in the state and members of parliament have passed a joint resolution rejecting and denouncing the bulldozing of the amendment of the state constitution by the speaker.

“The reasons for rejections are many but the four main reasons are due to grave violation of the constitution which everyone is obliged to protect. One major violation of the constitution is that the members of parliament were forced to stand up and be counted, which is contrary to parliamentary rules and regulations,” she said.

Rehan said the speaker did not allow members to follow the procedures and final major violation of the constitution is that the environment was not conducive for debating the request and voting.

“The security situation was volatile and scary because security forces were deployed around the parliament with the intention to intimidate the members of parliament to not vote against the extension of the term of the governor because it is not in the interest of the public”, she explained.

The state assembly speaker Moses Madot Deng, howver, denied the process was rigged and insisted that the whoke environment was conducive at the time voting took place.

“Nobody was forced to stand up and forced to vote. There are two ways of voting mechanism in the house. There is show of hands and secret voting. The majority opted for show of hands and so the house accepted because we are a democratic country. When it came to voting, majority got up again and they were counted,” said Deng.

“Those who did not get up remained sited and they were considered to have refused. There were 33 members who stood up to be counted in support of the amendment of the constitution and 13 remained sited”, he added.

(ST)