By William Madouk
An extraordinary Parliamentary session, on Friday morning, failed taking off till afternoon, due to shortage of handout copies for all members of the National Transition Assembly.
Addressing MPs, the first deputy Speaker, Rt. Hon. Nathaniel Oyet said “This is a very important sitting for all the member of the legislature so that we can finalize the business today,”
He added “because of the technical issues regarding the production of the document required which we don’t have them sufficiently now – so we are force to adjourn the sitting to 1:30 pm.”
Oyet explained that if the proposed extension is not endorsed than the government will face legitimacy test – thus, the short adjournment was to allow the House to produce more copies.
“You are also aware, this is weekend – Friday so we don’t have any other day except today to finalize all the business that is at hand,” he noted.
On the table, the parliament was to debate the extension of transition period and legitimize the tenure of the unity government, which, the presidency, cabinet, political parties and R-JMEC endorsed for another 24 months.
By law, the government of national unity could be dissolved by September 22, if the parliament does not race against time to pass the proposed two years extension, as the clock ticks, today, the only working day, left.
In agenda, minister of Justice, Ruben Madol, is expected to present resolutions of the presidency, National Council of ministers, parties signatory to the 2018 peace deal and RJMEC, consenting to the extension.
Others items for the Assembly’s deliberation include, the High-level standing committee reports and transitional constitution, 2011 (amendment N0.12) bill, 2024. However the copies were enough for all lawmakers.