Kitab Unango
Africa-Press – South-Sudan. South Sudanese lawmakers at the East Africa Legislative Assembly (EALA) are clenching their fists for a gruelling contest for the House speakership.
Though the country is yet to pick a candidate, local lawmakers are hopeful that South Sudan will produce the next speaker even though Burundi is expected to mount a stiff opposition.
“We hope that this time, South Sudan should be given the position because Burundi has held it before,” Sadia James, the EALA lawmaker told City Review.
The elections will take place next Tuesday, 21 December, in Arusha, Tanzania.
The lobbying period will end on Monday, 19 December before a new speaker is picked to replace Rwandan Martin Ngoga, whose term of office will expire on December 17, 2022.
“We will have a meeting today (Friday) with the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs to choose who will represent us in the contest,” added Sadia.
Burundi has already fronted Leontine Nzeyimana, who lost the 2017 EALA race to Ngona.
According to East Africa Community Treaty, the Speaker of the Assembly shall be elected on a rotational basis by the elected members of the EALA, and will serve for a period of five years.
But South Sudan’s lobbying could receive a setback due to the recent appointment of Jemma Nunu Kumba -Speaker of the Reconstituted Transitional National Legislative Assembly, as the chair of EAC Speakers Bureau.
This means that the country winning the EALA Speakership will be another country holding the top seat in the bloc.
South Sudan, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have yet to occupy the EALA Speakership seat.
But they must now sway other member states like Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and incumbent Rwanda, all who have held the post, to vote for their candidate.
The winner must garner at least two-thirds of the total vote cast. Should no candidate meet the requirement, it will go into a re-run between the first two candidates where a simple majority prevails.
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