H.E John Luk (Left) with Dr. Marial Benjamin addressing the press [©Gurtong]
By Waakhe Simon Wudu
JUBA, 5th April, 2011 [Gurtong] - On 1st February 2011, President Salva Kiir Mayardit appointed a committee to review the interim constitution, as part of post referendum preparation aimed to produce the legal frame work paper of the new transitional government from July 2011.
“This process is almost getting to an end,” said H.E John Luk Jok, the Chairperson of the Constitutional Review Committee and also the GOSS Minister of Legal Affairs and Constitutional Development.
However, the Minister said that, time factor was the biggest challenge affecting the Committee’s work. “This process has been constrained by time,” John confirmed.
John explained that, the Committee was fine tuning the Constitutional Draft and will by next week present it to the President to be passed to the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly, SSLA, for legislation.
The Minister denied reasons presented by the political parties for having pulled out from the review task. Five political parties pulled out from the Constitutional review work after its kick off two months ago.
They claimed that the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, SPLM, which is also the ruling party in South Sudan whose member is heading the review Committee, were accused of presenting an already “drafted text” of the constitution for review.
The parties also alleged that, SPLM disagreed on reviewing procedures on the existing draft constitution. They complained that, when the committee commenced its work, all the parties were expected to adapt the paper, some thing SPLM refused.
However, John Luk denied the allegations, while saying that what was only changed were the writings “Southern”. He explained that, because the name South Sudan was the name agreed for the new nation, SPLM decided to cross “ern” letters out from Southern.