Elvince Joshua
Africa-Press – South-Sudan. Small political parties could be forced to form coalitions to meet the much-needed numbers the law requires of them per state to register, City Review has learnt.
This is after the Reconstituted Transitional National Legislative Assembly (R-TNLA) passed the Political Parties Act, 2012, (Amendment) Bill 2022, after its third and fourth final readings in May, raising the ceiling of membership per state from 300 to 500—a move that triggered an uproar on the floor of the House.
Although there was disagreement over the proposed number, where SPLM-IO and other smaller parties rejected the number pegged at 500, the two principals—President Salva Kiir Mayardit and First Vice President Riek Machar—finally settled the dispute.
In an exclusive interview with City Review Thursday, Justine Marona, the Acting Opposition Chief Whip in the National Legislative Assembly (NLA), said that two principals agreed that the law had been passed and there was no going back.
“When they sat, they agreed that it must remain like that (500 membership in each state) for the party to legally register during the election,” said Marona. “The parliament passed it already with 500, and then it went to the president for assent as a law; it will never come back to the parliament again.”
Coalitions looming
According to Marona, this consensus drove a final nail into the coffin of “briefcase parties” that suffer from the membership gap. They must now fold and form formidable forces.
“It will streamline the parties and will teach some parties how to do alliances and merge so that they can manage to get the number,” he argued.
Marona argued that some small parties had been reduced to community or family institutions, and raising the ceiling of the membership would bring “genuine parties like it happens in the USA.”
“Having parties like 70 or 90 cannot qualify a country to be democratic, you can have four or six parties, and [they are] very strong parties with bases and programs.”
John Agany, the chairperson of the specialised committee for information, and telecommunication, also appealed to the small parties to embark on alliances with major political parties.
“Tell them in every part of the world that if you are a small party, you always make alliances, you join alliances in order to face the other major parties,” he said.
“For example, in the United States, only two parties are operating with that magnitude of people,” he added.
Agany echoed Marona’s sentiment that if the threshold for registration is too low, some parties could be family-based and lose the core business projected in the law.
“The fear of small parties is (not reasonable) unless somebody wanted to become a party with his wife and children,” he said.
“You are asked to register only 500 members in each state, and if you cannot manage, then you have issues,” he added.
The clash
In May, the Transitional National Legislative Assembly (R-TNLA) passed the Political Parties Act 2012 (Amendment) Bill 2022 after its third and fourth final readings in the house. However, this was rejected by my major opposition party, the SPLM-IO, which is leading a serious parliamentary sitting boycott.
The bill was to be discussed by the two principals in order to address the deadlock. Fortunately, after the two leaders met, it was agreed that the Act would be passed with 500 members in each state and administrative area for the party to qualify to register and take part in the upcoming election. This was according to the lawmakers.
South Sudan is expected to go to the polls in 20 months after the completion of the pending chapters of the revitalised peace agreement under the new extension deal, popularly known as the roadmap.
Source: The City Review South Sudan
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