The speaker of the legislative assembly in South Sudan’s Ruweng State has been impeached by lawmakers.
16 members of the state legislative assembly reportedly voted against the speaker in Pariang town on Monday.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Tuesday, Mayen Dau, chairperson of the parliamentary committee for information said Speaker William Chol Awalith was removed for alleged long absence from attending sittings.
“The first problem is that he was absent for almost 10 months without clear reasons, so the assembly saw that as a good reason for his impeachment,” he said.
Dau further said the speaker was accused of violating the assembly’s conduct of business regulations. “There are other reasons that I cannot disclose,” he added.
For his part, the assembly speaker, William Chol Awalith confirmed that some MPs had passed a vote of no confidence against him.
William insisted that he is still the state assembly’s speaker. “I was in Juba for eight months to seek treatment because I was sick. But what happened is a conspiracy because we had differences when Mr. Them Machar was still the state governor,” he said.
“Some MPs started recently to talk about representation of Awet community and they said my position should be given to them, but I rejected that proposal,” he explained.
William described the decision as “incorrect”, saying he remains in charge of the assembly, despite the impeachment resolution.
The total number of the state MPs is 21.