National Assembly Decides To Reduce Its Members The South Sudan Electoral Bill, passed into its third reading yesterday, has proposed a reduction in the number of Members of Parliament (MPs) in the South Sudan National Assembly (SSNA).15 March 2012 South Sudan National Assembly [File Photo]By Waakhe Simon Wudu JUBA, 15th March 2012 [Gurtong]
The bill presented in its second reading proposed a reduction of the MPs from the current over 300 members to 250. Hon. Dengtiel Ayuen Kuur, the SSNA Chairperson of Justice and Constitutional Committee who presented the bill to the August House said that, the Committee observed practices in many countries by comparing their population sizes and number of parliamentarians and came up with the proposal. “We also considered the opposition parties' idea that the parliament is so big and by reducing it will save the government from spending many resources,” Dengtiel told Gurtong exclusively. The Sudan’s population census conducted in 2008 revealed that, South Sudan population is less than nine million. Dengtiel said, “if one compares the number of legislators to the national population it is so huge.” Prior to the announcement of the South Sudan's new government after secession last year, President Salva Kiir increased the legislature and the executive. The opposition in parliament had criticized the changes claiming that it was non cost effective to a young nation like South Sudan. In their argument, parliament has committees that need to have staff and definitely increasing the human resource. During the heated debate parliamentarians backed the committees’ proposal and passed it to third reading. Other issues that raised heated debate were the question of public leaders holding constitutional positions and at the same time contesting as candidates without completely resigning from their positions. The committee, backed by all the parliamentarians proposed that, when contesting for any political post, Ministers, Governors, and Commissioners among others must completely resign from their positions. Dengtiel explained to Gurtong that, for the cases of the Governors and Ministers, the President should prepare in advance to appoint caretakers until a new Governor or Minister is elected and sworn in after the elections. “The Committee had observed that Ministers and Governors tend to misuse government resources and powers – using government security forces in their campaigns to compete with an ordinary civilian,” Dengtiel said. Posted in: Home -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" 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/SouthSudanKob?hl=en.
