The majority of the members of South Sudan’s national parliament on Wednesday did not turn up for a vote on the National Security Service Bill, which the presidency has been pushing the parliament to pass.
This comes after another failed attempt to reach quorum on Tuesday. South Sudan’s constitution requires a quorum of “more than half of the members” of parliament for votes on the final presentation of bills.
The parliament has 332 seats but 23 members were removed in August on grounds of absenteeism and suspicion of ties to the groups SPLM-in-Opposition and SPLM Former Detainees.
This means that a quorum of at least 155 members is necessary for any final vote on new legislation.
Today’s sitting starting at 1:30 p.m. was attended by 87 members of the parliament, three of whom left the room in protest, leaving 84 lawmakers present at the time of the vote.
A significant bloc of MPs of the ruling SPLM-Juba faction did not attend the sitting at all, but rather boycotted it before it began. This bloc included almost all of the MPs of the three Equatoria states.
Dengtiel Ayuen, a lawmaker from Jonglei State who supported the motion, told Radio Tamazuj that “no one opposed” the bill when the vote was taken.
Asked about the number of lawmakers present he said, “I did not count,” claiming that a quorum was reached.
Speaker Manasseh Magok Rundial ruled that the bill had passed into law, after the adoption of a number of amendments to accommodate concerns raised by MPs since last week.
Henry Odowar is an MP from Eastern Equatoria State who attended the sitting but then later walked out. He said that he and other MPs had requested another 72 hours to review the bill, after amendments had been introduced to the text.
“We were told by the people who are working on the document that the documents will be distributed so that we look at the concerns that we had raised. But we were surprised that the document was not given,” he said, claiming that this amounted to a breach of parliamentary procedure.
Addressing the Speaker of the Assembly, Odawar said, “Mr. Speaker, you saw a lot of people walked out, and because of that I personally will walk out because this is not the way of passing bills.”
The MP vowed that “Equatorians as a whole” would oppose the bill, before leaving the chamber.
However, at least one MP from Equatoria reportedly voted in favour of the bill, Tulio Odongi Ayaho, the SPLM-Juba chief whip.
Two other MPs were initially present at the sitting and then walked out, including Onyoti Adigo, the minority leader and deputy chairman of SPLM-DC.
He told press after the vote that the bill was not in conformity with the country’s transitional constitution and the manner in which it was passed was in violation of parliamentary rules of procedure.
Meanwhile, Jonglei MP Dengtiel Ayuen said he was unable to say how many lawmakers from his state boycotted the vote. Maker Thiong was among those absent, though apparently only because he was in Kenya, not in South Sudan.
It is not yet clear whether the clerk of the parliament kept any record of attendance or made any formal vote count of those who supported the motion on the bill.
More to follow.
Photo: National Assembly chamber during the sitting on 8 October 2014