South Sudan: President Kiir Reconstitutes Council of States

By Deng Machol

Juba - South Sudan's President Salva Kiir has reconstituted the Council of States, the upper chamber of the national legislature in South Sudan.

On Saturday night; president picked nominees from parties to the agreement, the SPLM-IG, the SPLM-IO,the South Sudan Opposition Alliance, SSOA, Other Political Parties (OPP) and the Former Detainees were appointed per the Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan. 

This move completes the loopholes of the reconstituted transitional national legislative assembly into a functional legislature vital in the enactment of laws and reforms in the agreement. 

The Revitalized Transitional Government has been without its legislative arm since May when the two houses were dissolved.

The reconstitution comes after the president dissolved the parliament in May 2021, and subsequently named 550 members of the Reconstituted National Transitional Legislative Assembly as per the dictates of the 2018 peace deal.
However, the TNLA was reconstituted a month later but its members are yet to be sworn in.

The two August houses should have been reconstituted in 2020 after the announcement of the formation of the executive arm of the peace government.

Under the 2018 peace deal, the reconstituted Council of States would be expanded from 50 to 100 members representative of all the parties to the peace deal.

This expected to boost the quest by the government to function smoothly especially on grounds that the legislature will be able to carry out its functions to support the peace process.

The transitional government said members of both August houses will take the oath of office on July 9th, 2021, the day when South Sudan will also be commemorating 10 years of independence.