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Sudan Tribune

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Western Bahr el Ghazal elects new speaker

February 20, 2015 (WAU) – South Sudan’s Western Bahr el Ghazal state parliament has elected a new speaker after his predecessor was removed from the post.

Mario John Nyibang, who has been a member of the state assembly since 2010, was sworn in on Thursday before Judiciary John Yel, the state deputy governor and cabinet ministers.

His appointment comes after state assembly members impeached former speaker Andrea Mayar Acho on Tuesday.

Nyibang was elected in a quorum of 27 MPs present in the assembly out of a total sitting 43.

Acho, who had served as state speaker since 2005 during the signing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which paved the way for South Sudan’s independence, was removed after being accused of waiving MPs’ immunity.

MPs had also complsined of Acho’s long absence from the assembly, which they was creating political power vacuum within the parliament and executive.

“We, the state government, have been monitoring the activities that had been going on in the state assembly and it is a sufficient that you have detected and secured the situation with its ways forward,” deputy governor Zackaria Joseph Garang said during the swearing in ceremony.

“The advancement of the assembly means more to our citizens because their security, development and all their interests [are] based on you,” he told the assembly.

Garang has urged the new speaker to work towards uniting cabinet members, calling on MPs to support the current government which is currently negotiating with the country’s rebel faction to restore peace in South Sudan.

Nyibang thanked the MPs for his appointment and recognising him as a person capable of bringing change and unity within the state assembly.

“[I] am very glad to you that you have pledged your trust in me and I hope that we will work together to reunite our members in the assembly, so that we can work hard to deliver what our communities expect from us,” he said.

“We have now achieved what our assembly was longing for and it’s now a right time for us as [a] whole to work hand in hand to promote peace and development in our state. I hope now that this assembly will work together with the state government for the better future of our people,” he added.

Acho described efforts to remove him from his post as position after 34 MPs held a session to review a motion raised against him on Ruesday.

Eight MPs, including the speaker, walked out of the session, with 26 agreeing to impeach the speaker.

“All moves that were taken against me by some members within the assembly are not legitimate, they all lack of law and our state assembly business code of conduct,” Acho told reporters following the decision.

“The sitting of yesterday (Tuesday) [that] impeached me – the quorum – was not enough and also the average to impeach me did not reach 29 members,” he added.

(ST)

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