Ex-road minister Rebecca Joshua selected as SPLM party chief whip in parliament

JUBA – Former South Sudan minister of road Rebecca Joshua Okwuaci has been selected by the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) party to become the party’s next chief whip in parliament, several SPLM members who attended a meeting of the group’s lawmakers in the recently reconstituted parliament have said.

One lawmaker who attended the meeting said the selection was made this afternoon in Juba with Joshua winning majority vote of the many lawmakers who attended the meeting.

“This afternoon, there was a meeting of the SPLM party members of the Reconstituted Transitional Legislature – and I am talking of both houses, the Council of States and the R-TNLA – and during that meeting, Rebecca Joshua was selected by majority of those who attended to become the next party chief whip in parliament,” the lawmaker told a Sudans Post reporter in Juba.

“So, she is going to be the leader of the SPLM party lawmakers in parliament and we commend President Salva Kiir for appointing us into the parliament to represent our people and the party as given to us by the revitalized peace agreement,” the lawmaker who requested not to be named added.

Joshua, a wife to opposition leader Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin has held several positions in the government of President Salva Kiir Mayardit since the establishment of the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) in 2005 right to the independence of the country in 2011.