The speaker of South Sudan’s Aweil State parliament says Aweil lawmakers have been working on the state constitution for last two years.
Benson Upuothmalo told Radio Tamazuj on Wednesday that a draft has already been sent to the assembly’s legal affairs committee and will soon be signed into law.
Although he did not disclose reasons as to why the constitution making process has taken about 2 years, Upuothmalo said there is no constitutional vacuum as the state uses former Northern Bahr el Ghazal and national constitutions in its daily operations.
A member of the Women Empowerment and Entrepreneurship Coaching civil society organization Deng Chan Chan said there are more pressing issues for the state than the constitution.
“We are in crisis and you know issues to do with constitution are done when the country is stable, so the question is even if we speed up with the constitution, constitution alone cannot change anything because people need hospitals, water, good education. These are the most important things that are supposed to be in place and the rest can be done later on,” Chan added.
However, former Aweil state speaker Deng Ayom Ayom said the process stalled due to financial constraints and urged the completion of the state constitution as a matter of urgency.