S. Sudan political parties bill violates peace deal, says Dr. Lam Akol’s group

JUBA – The National Democratic Movement (NDM) led by Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin has rejected the decision by the transitional parliament to pass the Political Parties Act 2012 (Amendment Bill 2022) saying the bill violates the revitalized peace agreement signed in 2018.

“Yesterday, 30 May 2022, the Reconstituted Transitional National Legislative Assembly passed the Political Parties Bill which was drafted by the National Constitutional Amendment Committee (NCAC) and passed by the Council of Ministers of the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity (RTGoNU),” the NDM said in a statement extended to Sudans Post today.

Citing provisions of the revitalized peace agreement, the NDM said “the RTNLA has no power to amend the substance of the laws proposed by the NCAC. Otherwise, it would disturb the consensus reached in the signing of the peace agreement and drafting the laws.”

The group argued that “the NCAC was an inclusive body comprising all the Parties to the Agreement as stipulated in Article 1.18.4 of R-ARCSS. This was to ensure that the laws that they draft are in conformity to the letter and spirit of the peace agreement, in other words, all the views of the Parties to and stakeholders in the agreement have been incorporated in those laws.”

The opposition group went on to accused the SPLM-IG and the SPLM-IO of conspiring by using their majority in the parliament to pass the amendments and said the actions sets a bad precedent for laws that are awaiting to be passed by the transitional parliament.

“What happened in parliament yesterday was contrary to all that. First, the two factions of the SPLM (IG and IO) have conspired to amend the provisions of the Political Parties Bill drafted by the NCAC and used their majority in the appointed parliament to pass those amendments. This is a clear violation of the Revitalized Agreement and sets a dangerous precedent regarding the other laws awaiting to be passed in parliament,” the group said.

“The parliament, according to the agreement, was only to ratify the laws, not to amend them. Second, during the debate, the Speaker made sure that the parliamentary blocs other than the two SPLM factions were denied their right to present their views, an act contrary to the known parliamentary practice the world over. The “debate’ was dominated by the two SPLM factions,” the group added.