President Salva Kiir’s faction has applied illegal procedures to reopen its old parliament in the name of South Sudan’s Transitional National Legislative Assembly, a spokesperson for the armed opposition faction allied to Riek Machar said.
This statement comes after the new transitional legislature held its first session which was inaugurated by President Salva Kiir and his new deputy Taban Deng Gai in Juba earlier this week.
“All the procedures were contrary to what was agreed upon in the peace agreement. So on our side, the inauguration of the parliament is just a continuation of the same parliament that existed since 2013, and to us, the procedures are illegal and unconstitutional” he said.
Manawa Peter Gatkuoth, deputy head of the SPLM-IO information committee, told Radio Tamazuj that the newly reconstituted parliament in Juba is a move to undermine the peace deal.
On Monday, President Kiir said the transitional legislature should have been established ninety days from the date of signing the peace agreement, saying they failed to meet that deadline due to petty political differences and lack of cooperation with opposition leader Riek Machar.
Mode of electing a new parliamentary speaker from the Equatoria region as well as who should chair the first sitting during which the speaker should be elected delayed reconstitution of the transitional parliament before Machar left Juba in July.