Peter Mayen Majongdit, a leading member of the Other Political Parties (OPP), says the delay in the formation of state legislative assemblies was not from his side.
South Sudan still does not have legislative assemblies in the states despite the formation of the Transitional Government of National Unity in early 2020.
Last week, Kornelio Kon, the leader of the National Alliance of Political Parties and a leading member of the OPP, said Mr. Peter Mayen Majongdit was behind the delays in the formation of state assemblies.
“One of our leading members, who is the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Peter Mayen Majongdit, has not reached an agreement with us over the names of nominees to the state assemblies," Kon said.
However, Mayen, who leads the umbrella group within OPP, said: "The allegations that I am the one delaying the formation of the state assemblies is baseless, I have nothing to do with the delay."
He added: "In fact, we have not met to agree with them. In the last agreement on the sharing of seats in the state assemblies, the Kornelio Kon’s group got 32 seats, with the aim of representing all the parties of the National Alliance, but what happened is that Martin Tangun's party, and other parties, were not represented. Kornelio Kon and the African National Congress Party took all the seats."
Majongdit, who is also a minister for humanitarian affairs, said the lack of equitable sharing of parliamentary seats made political parties under the National Alliance of Political Parties complain of marginalization.
He added: "We asked them for a meeting so that we can reach an agreement, but they refused to meet us."
The minister claimed that the National Alliance of Political Parties is behind the delay in the formation of the state legislative assemblies due to its failure to represent some parties.
The umbrella group and the National Alliance of Political Parties are under the Other Political Parties (OPP) – a party to the September 2018 peace agreement.