South Sudan Parliamentarians To Go For Recess

the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Information and Communication, Paul Yoane Bonju [File photo]

By Ojwe Lumara JUBA, 20 November 2018 [Gurtong]-In an interview on Monday, the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Information and Communication, Paul Yoane Bonju said Speaker Anthony Lino Makana was consulting President Salva Kiir to allow the Members of Parliament break from their work in Juba.

President Kiir will then address the MPs and formally close the house allowing the MPs to visit their constituencies.

According to the Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA) Conduct of Business 2011 amended 2017 Chapter Four, lawmakers are supposed to go for about three-month recess every year. However, the MPs have not been able to go on recess for the last three years.

Hon Bonju defended that some of the lawmakers have not officially visited their various constituencies for a long time due to national issues which included extending the tenure of the government and participating in the peace process.

“This one is dictated not because the members do not want to go to their constituencies, but because of the pressing national issues,” he said.  “One of them is extending the tenure of the government and ratifying the revitalized peace agreement.”

The MP added that there was an interest from the law makers and dire need from different constituencies to disseminate the revitalized peace agreement.

He reiterated that the members were looking forward to going on recess so that they would visit their constituencies and disseminate the recently signed revitalized peace agreement.