Jenifer James
Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The members of the Reform and Prosperity group pose for a group photo after issuing the press statement on Monday. [Jenifer James, The City Review]
The members of the Reform and Prosperity team of lawyers and advocates hailed the court’s verdict suspending the electoral activities of the BAR association last month.
In a press statement to the media, the representative of the Reform and Prosperity Group, Atong Majak Kur, stated that the group had endorsed the decision and called on the lawyers to unite for a common purpose.
“This ruling has eliminated the path-forward amnesty leadership dispute within the South Sudan BAR association. We remain optimistic that through an election process and constructive conversations among all parties involved, we can achieve a durable resolution,” he stated.
“Now is the moment to transact personal ambitions and differences, rallying together for the greater good of our esteemed profession and its future.”
According to Atong, BAR experienced challenges in 2014 as the first attempt after the Act of Parliament was enacted in 2013 and the body has always been polarized.
“We also had a second attempt in 2022 and therefore we had two different Bar Associations which divided the advocates into two, so, we came up with the idea of having the election again and having to call the General Assembly, which was supposed to happen on the 13th last month, but some of our land colleagues took the right to go to the court and ask for other rights, which were actually rights given to them by law.”
Atong further explained that the judiciary had to come up with a solution of forming the committee by judicial decision.
“That court’s decision, when you put it together with our law, which is the 2013 Act, we have our own way of calling the General Assembly, forming the electoral committee,” he averred.
Last year, a senior lawyer, Anthony Ayok Chol, filed a petition with the Juba High Court, calling for the dissolution of existing Bar Association groups and the establishment of a proper Association.
He said his petition was to ensure the proper setup of the bar association without any complications.
Early this year, the Elections Committee, led by James Lado, announced that the elections would take place on March 13 and 14, 2024.
However, in its final ruling, the three-jury Court of Appeal declared that the ongoing election activities led by the committee are temporarily halted until the pending objection is resolved.
Source: The City Review South Sudan
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