The minister of youth and sports in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State on Wednesday issued an order banning electoral processes for youth unions in counties until further notice.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Thursday, Minister Bol Akuar Gamar said the suspension of youth union elections at the county level is due to the absence of a governing constitution. He blamed the state youth council for not reviewing a law for county youth associations.
“When we formed the state youth union in October 2022, we borrowed from the constitution of the National Youth Union and the counties are supposed to borrow from the Northern Bahr el Ghazal State Youth Union constitution. But what happened was that the state youth council didn’t review any constitution,” he explained.
Luka Manut, one of the state youth union councillors, welcomed the ministerial order and said the councillors did not pass any resolution to govern county youth associations.
“We in the council, we didn’t recognize that there should be a formation of the county youth associations because it needs to be presented in the state council, which will come out with a resolution for the establishment of the county youth association,” Manut said.
For his part, the spokesperson of the Northern Bahr el Ghazal State Youth Union, Bol Garang, said it is the prerogative of the State Youth Union Chairperson to form county electoral committees, and not the youth council.
“There was a letter allegedly written by the minister of youth in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State in which he claimed to have suspended the activities of the county youth associations, and the minister mentioned that the constitution was not amended by the councillors and then he himself did not sign it. It is the prerogative of the youth union chairperson to form the county electoral committees and consequently conduct elections,” Garang said.