Third deputy speaker from OPP to be announced ‘soon’

The spokesperson of the Other Political Parties (OPP) said they expect their nominees for chairpersons and deputy, plus the name of the nominee for the position of third deputy speaker, to be announced at the next parliamentary sitting

The coalition’s spokesperson, Albino Akol, told The City Review in an interview on Monday that the consultation among the parties in OPP is at its final stage and will be completed soon before the National Budget is retabled by the committee on finance and planning in its second reading.

“That sitting will get us as OPP ready in our consultation and the committees will be announced,” he said.

It has been almost two months since the names of the other political parties to the revitalized agreement were announced in January 2022, while the names of the South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA) and the Other Political Parties (OPP) were missing. It was only the SPLM and SSPLM-IO who submitted their lists early.

The nominees for SSOA were then announced on the same date when the national budget was tabled in the assembly in early February 2022.

About the third deputy speaker, Akol said the consultation is already finalized and, of course, “we, as OPP, have already agreed on the same nominee the other time we have already nominated,” said Akol.

The OPP is one of the signatory parties to the revitalized peace agreement and is an umbrella of six political parties.

What is remaining is for the office of the President to forward the approval of their nominee to the speaker to announce it, according to Akol, and hope that the name of the nominee for the third deputy speaker is forwarded to the speaker as well.

“We hope that by the next sitting that we are waiting for, we will get the forward letter from the office of the President and the speaker will announce”

“So, we want to inform you and the public that the issues and position of OPP in the National Assembly are almost done.”

According to the conduct of business, if the budget were tabled in parliament by the minister of finance in its first reading, the assembly would not have any other business apart from scrutiny of the budget.

Under the umbrella of the other political parties, there have been several disagreements since the unity government was formed, particularly on the ratio of parties that share among themselves both in the executive and the legislature.

Up to date, members of the OPP in the State Assemblies in all the States have not been nominated due to internal disagreement within the OPP to reach a consensus.

Akol told The City Review that at first, some OPP members couldn’t agree on a nominee for third deputy speaker and wanted the position to be assigned to a specific group, which slowed the entire process.

He noted that the process is already completed after members of the coalition agreed to allocate the position to the National Alliance.

“Now people agreed for it to be allocated to the National Alliance, which is one signatory within the OPP.”

Akol blamed delays in consultations within the OPP on the number of political parties which made up the coalition party for the peace agreement and said that this is the reason the OPP was left behind in the establishment of any government institution.

Last year, President Kiir revoked the first list of 28 MPs nominated by Peter Mayen from a list of members of parliament appointed in July after members of the OPP coalition expressed concerns over the nomination process.

The agreement gave the OPP 30 seats in the National Assembly, which the six-member groups are to share among themselves. However, the remaining members of the party have criticized Mayen for violating the provisions of the agreement.

The members of the OPP then agreed after President Kiir engaged them in a meeting to resolve their months long deadlock.

The coalition, including Peter Mayen’s own party, has dismissed him as the chair of both the OPP and the People’s Liberal Party (PLP), and replaced him with Dr. Abraham Bungkuac Alic as Interim Chairperson of OPP, which Mayen said he does not recognize because he believed party members like himself would only be dismissed through the general assembly.