South Sudan’s parliament has today adopted the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan, following presenation of the agreement to the parliament by Justice Minister Paulino Wanawilla.

The Agreement was signed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 17 August 2015 by Riek Machar of the SPLA/M-IO and by President Salva Kiir in Juba on 27 August.

Article 1 of Chapter VIII of the agreement says that the agreement shall, upon signature, be presented to parliament to adopt it within seven days. This means that the adoption of the agreement by parliament today comes several days behind schedule.

Speaking on Thursday during the sitting, the Speaker of the Assembly Manasseh Magok Rundial denied some earlier reports that he had rejected the agreement. He questioned why he would reject an agreement that is good for the people of South Sudan.

“By this joint house of the national legislature today adopted the agreement on the resolution of the conflict in the Republic of South Sudan 2015,” said Magok.

Reportedly, a total of 212 members of parliament voted in favor of the agreement, with none voting against it. However, it was not immediately clear whether that vote tally represented a combination of the yes votes of both the Assembly and Council of Ministers.

The minority opposition party SPLM-DC has also voted in favor of adoption of the peace agreement, but they said that they want to actually be included as a signatory to the agreement itself.

Hon. Onyoti Adigo, the leader of minority, urged the IGAD and international community to pressure the government to allow them to put their signature on the agreement in order to reflect the coming government of national unity.

“We are really very pleased and that is our motto, although the political parties do not sign but still we appeal to the IGAD and the government to allow political parties to sign. Because without the signature of the political parties then... we will not have the government of national unity,” he said.

Adigo clarified, however, that they will not go against the agreement but they welcome the adoption of the agreement by parliament. He urged the warring parties to support and disseminate the agreement.