Nine South Sudanese political parties pull out from constitutional review Article Comments (5) Email PrintSave --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
March 8, 2011 (ABYEI) — Nine South Sudanese political parties announced they are pulling out from a constitutional review committee following disagreements on power-sharing allotments with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), which controls affairs of South Sudan. Sudan’s SPLM-DC leader Lam Akol (AFP) The leaders of the political parties accused the SPLM of violating rules during deliberations and continuing to impose unconstitutional ideas in the discussions. South Sudan Democratic Front chairman David Dechan, in a joint press release the opposition parties said they withdrew from the committee because the SPLM violated some rules during the last working session. Dechan explained that decisions should be reached by consensus, but the SPLM imposed what he called illegal and unconstitutional views by vote because they are in majority. He believes that some of the SPLM members in the committee do not contribute during deliberations and that they are there only for numerical purposes - to sabotage constructive and legally grounded observations which most of them consider dangerous to their political survival. However, he said the parties have resolved to form a joint political parties’ forum as a platform for dialogue with the SPLM over the issues of constitutional review. He further added that if dialogue fails, the international community and particularly the US special envoy to the Sudan, should arbitrate between the SPLM and the other parties. "We are open to dialogue with the SPLM. This is why have resolved to form a joint political parties forum, as a platform through which we will continue to discuss constitutional review with the SPLM", said Dechan, calling for the participation of a third party. John Luk Jok, minister of Legal Affairs and Constitutional Development in the Government of South Sudan (GoSS) confirmed withdrawal of nine southern opposition political parties. "Nine opposition political parties have pulled out from the constitutional review because they lost during voting issues pertaining to power sharing. They demanded 50% share in the assembly", said Jok in a televised statement on South Sudan Television on Monday evening. John Mayen Jurkuc, a political commentator who declined to disclose his membership with any political party, told Sudan Tribune he supports the withdrawal of the opposition political parties, arguing that the committee was not inclusive when it was formed, until the president was compelled by the public outcries. "The first observation of this review committee is that it is not technical, it is a political committee. A handful of members are not technicians. If you appoint politicians to review the constitution, you are bound to have a serious conflict, because each politician will try to insert his interest into the constitution," said Jurkuc. "This is exactly what is happening in the review committee. The SPLM wants to write the constitution to the exclusion of others. For instance, the SPLM wants to carry the CPA interim institutions into the new country to the exclusion of others". He said a case in point is the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly (SSLA) which appointed Southern members of the Khartoum based National Assembly to form the Transitional Assembly of the new nation. "This is ridiculous," said Jurkuc. “Everyone knows that the infamous rigged April elections brought nearly all members of the SPLM. Are you going to have the SPLM Transitional Parliament to write the Constitution of the new republic? Imagine how that nation will look like under the SPLM constitution," he continued. "We call upon the people of good will both within the SPLM and the international community to rescue this newly born nation from the tyranny of a clique within the SPLM, who have already squandered resources of South Sudan and now want to write themselves into the new constitution of this infant nation to be", explained Jurkuc. The nine political parties that left the constitutional review committee are United Democratic Fund, United South Sudan Party, Sudan Liberal Party, Sudan People’s Liberation Movement – Democratic Change, Communist Party of Sudan, United Democratic Salvation Front, South Sudan Democratic Front, SDA and National United Democratic Front. (ST) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD info" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
