New Jonglei state governor to come from Twic East county
October 10, 2015 (BOR) – The youth, intellectuals and politicians from the greater Bor community resolved that the new state of Jonglei governorship go to Twic East county.
This came during Saturday’s meeting, chaired by South Sudan’s information minister, Michael Makuei Lueth, which attracted the Dinka Bor people in Juba.
Makuei, the chairperson of the greater Bor community, said it was agreed during the Juba meeting that the Twic East community brings the list of five nominees for vetting.
“We have agreed that the governor of the new Jonglei state, shall come from Twic East County. We have told the people of Twic East community to go and sit, discuss and come up with the list of nominees to be vetted by the community of the state”, Makuei told the state-owned SSTV.
In the new Jonglei state, Bor, Twic East and Duk counties would share the powers in the way that would satisfy them. The three major seats to be distributed equally in the state are seats of the governor, deputy governor and the speaker of the legislative assembly.
Power sharing or seats allocations, would be done through the traditional power sharing methodology, not on a competitive basis. As Twic East would fill the post of the governor, the deputy governor, it was agreed, would go to Bor County while the speaker’s position of the state legislative assembly would be allocated to Duk or vise versa.
That means the current speaker, Peter Deng Aguer, who hails from Twic East county would have to resign his position so that the post is left for either Duk or Bor county.
A number of youth from Duk and Bor counties had accepted the governorship idea , but urged Twic East to nominate competent candidates who would uplift the new state.
Majority of the youth on social media, mainly facebook, had expressed their interest in some people, such as the current South Sudan army spokesperson, Col. Phillip Aguer.
“Aguer Panyang is our choice, the voices of the people saying that Philip Aguer Panyang should be the governor of Jonglei state is loud now, people want him to go and lead them”, one Jacob Chol Kur wrote on his facebook page on Saturday.
Others proposed names include people like, Deng Dau, who currently represents Twic East county in the national assembly, Atem Garang Kuek, another prominent politician who was the deputy speaker in government of national unity(GoNU) when in Khartoum before South Sudan separated, who is now a member of the council of states has been proposed. David de Dau, founder of Agency for independent media(AIM) and an active member in the civil society fraternity, has also been proposed, among other individuals.
Its not clear when the community of Twic East would sit and nominate their candidates.
If nominations are done, the list of the candidates would be presented to the greater Bor community for scrutiny before its forwarded to the president to make the appointment.
(ST).