South Sudan: Kiir Reconstitutes Transitional Parliament

By Deng Machol

Juba - South Sudan President Salva Kiir has reconstituted the Country's Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA) after over a year.

President Kiir's order announced on state - based TV-SSBC on Monday's evening includes members of the SPLM party; the National Agenda, the Democratic Change (D.C) party, the SPLM-IO, the South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA), the Other Opposition Parties (OPP), and the former detainees (FDs) - all the parties to the peace deal.

Presidential order comes two days after the Kiir dissolved both the Transitional National Legislative Assembly and the Council of states.

The 2018 peace deal demands that the reconstituted parliament be expanded from 400 to 550 members of all the warring parties to the agreement.

The former Transitional government shall nominate 332 members, SPLM-IO with 128, members and South Sudan Opposition Alliance, or SSOA, with 50 members.

The Other Political Parties, OPP shall have 30 representatives and the Former Detainees with 10.

The Council of States, on the other hand, shall be expanded from 50 members to 100. The president is however yet to issue orders for expansion and reconstitution of the Council of States.

The move is in line with provisions of the revitalized peace agreement that requires expansion and reconstitution of the national legislature to include members of opposition parties signatories to the 2018 deal.

According to the revitalized peace deal, both houses—TNLA and the Council of States shall be reconstituted to include new appointees per the revitalized peace agreement.

The warring parties to the peace deal dragged reconstitution of both upper and lower houses for over a year despite the formation of the executive arm of the government in February, 2020

Lack of a functional parliament, observers said made it difficult for the enactment of laws that assist the transitional processes.

However, the civil society groups welcomed the reconstitution of the NLA, further called for presidency to immediately complete the formation of other commissions or institutions that spelled out in the revitalized peace deal.