President Salva Kiir’s advisor on security affairs and chairperson of the country’s National Transitional Committee (NTC), Tut Galuak Manime, on Monday, after a meeting of the presidency, said the formation of the national and states’ parliaments and the council of states will be finalized this week.
“The meeting discussed the process of completion of the national legislature, the council of states, and the states’ assemblies. The president and the first vice president had expected the committee to present the list of the members as soon as possible so that a decree can be issued,” Tut said. “We have so far received a list of four states and we are expecting today or tomorrow that a decree would be made on that by the president. We are waiting for the list of the council of states.”
He said all signatories to the agreement had presented their nominees to the national assembly.
“All the parties to the agreement have presented their lists of members to the National Assembly. The SPLM is ready as well to announce its lists of the national assembly and the council of states. As you know the first suggestion was 50 members but now all parties have reached a consensus to nominate 100 members,” he added.
According to the security advisor, “We will present these nominees to the president this week and we expect that all the councils at all levels will be completed this week.”
Tut also said the meeting discussed how the state governments should work together and resolve all internal differences. He added that the president directed the committee to closely monitor this process with the concerned states and to present their findings to the presidency.
“We don’t see much difference but only a few misunderstandings that are in Upper Nile and Behr el Ghazal, Wau, which are related to the position of the town Municipality. These are few things that will be resolved between each governor and the cabinet through consensus so that all programs will be implemented amicably,” Tut said.
He pointed out that all structures of the constitutional posts are distributed in accordance with the peace deal but the position of the town mayors and their deputies have been left to state governors to appoint.
“We are hopeful that today or tomorrow we will hear decrees about the appointment of the councils by the president so that all government structures are complete,” he concluded.