The leadership of the People’s Liberal Party is urging Equatorian female parliamentarians in the Transitional National Assembly (TNLA) to aspire to the position of Speaker.
South Sudan’s peace agreement signed in August last year mandated that the speakership be given to somebody from the Equatoria region, which comprises the three southern states of South Sudan covering a large number of ethnic groups.
Isaac Louise, the Party Secretary-General, said it would be unfortunate if all the top leadership in the country are men, pointing to the principle enshrined in the constitution of allocating 25% representation to women at various levels of government.
Peter Mayen Majongdit, the party leader, said that the country’s political stabiliy depends too much on powerful men who have engaged in power struggles.
The party said that the signatories to the peace agreement must not forget the concept of why the speakership was allocated to MPs from the Equatoria region.
“The reason the Speaker position was allocated to Equatoria was to compensate the Equatorians for their leader Wani Igga who gave up his position for current FVP Dr. Machar in order to achieve peace,” PLP said, urging the Equatorian women to wake up for the position.