WES Transitional Constitution Endorsed By Parliament

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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The Western Equatoria State (WES) legislative assembly last Thursday passed the State draft transitional constitution after nearly a month of deliberations.

The Western Equatoria State (WES) legislative assembly last Thursday passed the State draft transitional constitution after nearly a month of deliberations.

The resolutions of the draft fundamental law will later be forwarded to the State government for further consultations before it’s sent to the Justice Ministry in Juba, the South Sudan capital.

The WES Legislative Assembly dragged the constitution approval process after being stuck on Article 65 subsection (1) and (6) which approves the first and second positions of Deputy Speakers, after the collapse of the position of controller in the National Assembly.

Article 65 (1) says the Assembly will have only one position of Speaker and deputy speaker while article 65(6) States that the current officers of the Assembly will keep their current positions in the transitional government.

“We happened to resolve the hindrance of the passing of the State constitution on Tuesday by constituting the State Assembly cabinet,” said Edward Bukulu.

Yambio County took the position of the deputy speaker after the former deputy speaker Mr. Stephen Kayanga from Mundri West stepped down while claiming that the cabinet was not inclusive.

The Assembly speaker is from Maridi County, and the deputy is from Mundri West, however Yambio complained of no equality in distribution of powers in the August house.

“Formerly we had only 8 specialized committees in the Assembly less than other States, but we have increased to 12,” explained the speaker.

The added positions include Education Research and Technology, Land Environment and Natural resources, Public Service and Human Resource Development, and Public accounting.

He stressed that all the ten Counties of the State have been represented in the current heads and deputies of specialized committees in the Assembly.

Shortly after passing the constitution, the house speaker, Mr. Bukulu Edward congratulated the members for working hard despite some problems.

The speaker said this is just a transitional constitution that will lead the people in the next three years for the next election and after that, a permanent constitution will be in place and all people will participate.

Bukulu said that the unity of Western Equatoria State should be taken as a priority for peace and stability.

The newly elected deputy speaker from greater Yambio Mr. Bage James thanked the members of greater Yambio for entrusting him to hold that position.
 
The chairperson of information and official spokesperson of the house by the order of the speaker, Mr. Mudir Martin said it was the long awaited issue for the assent of the National Ministry of Justice.