August 27th 2018 (Nyamilepedia) – South Sudan’s SPLM-IO led by the country’s First Vice-President designate Dr. Riek Machar Teny-Dhurgon has reject a proposal by the Sudanese mediation which seek to mandate the National Constitutional Review Commission (NCRC) to draft the permanent constitution for the country.
South Sudan parties are in the Sudanese capital Khartoum as part of an ongoing efforts by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a Eastern African regional bloc, to end the ongoing bloodshed in South Sudan.
In a statement seen by the Nyamilepedia on Sudan, the main armed opposition group said they strongly disagree with the mediation over the proposed mandate meant to be given to the National Constitutional Review Commission (NCRC).
“The SPLM/A(IO] disagrees with the procedures proposed in the draft for the permanent constitution-making which mandates the National Constitutional Review Commission to draft the Constitutional Text for the Permanent Constitution outside the forum of the National Constitutional,” said the statement signed by the group’s Deputy Chairman Henry Odwar.
Odwar who is also the head of the SPLM-IO negotiating team further said the process of the permanent constitution-making is a popular exercise and that the National Constitutional Review Commission (NCRC) which they said is not a trustworthy should mot be entrusted with it.
“The SPLM/A (IO) maintains that permanent constitution making is a popular excercise in which the people of South Sudan must exercise their rght to deliberate on matters of governing their country,” he said in the statement.
He added that the process should involve the people of South Sudan who will decide how their aspiration for good governance could be set-up.
“The SPLM/A (IO), therefore, would like to state that the organisation of the National Constitutional Conference should be handled as a people driven process that reflects the aspirations and the will of the people of South Sudan rather than the government driven process,” the statement added.
