South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Benjamin Takpiny
The Executive Director for Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), Edmund Yakani has asked the recently reconstituted Political Parties’ Council to task political parties to at least have persons with disabilities represented within them.
“We want to call upon the leaders of the Political Parties’ Council not to compromise on the following serious concerns we are raising to their attention. Our serious concerns are as follows. Number one, any political party that presents its documents for registration should ensure that within its structure, 35% of women are being represented. Because if we want to secure meaningful women participation in public life, we start with the political parties. But also, the list of the 35% of women that represent the party for registration should be inclusive of women with disability because the country is now a member State to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,” Yakani said in statement issued in Juba on Sunday.
He appreciated the leadership of the Political Parties’ Council for demonstrating responsibility and commitment for timely registration of political parties in accordance with the country’s preparation for the upcoming general election in December 2024.
“If we talk of inclusive public governance, we have to consider this right from the political parties because that reflects the image of the government any political would set up if it wins the election,” Yakani said.
He urged the leadership of political parties’ council to ensure that registration fees do not handicap political parties from registering.
“The fees for political parties’ registration should be in a way that it helps in nurturing the growth of the multi-party system, the growth of democracy, we expect the fees not to be an instrument that will deny other political parties registeration,” Yakani said.
“We are calling upon the leadership of the political parties’ council to work with the directorate of immigration, the minister of interior to ensure citizens’ access to ID cards because it is very important for citizens to have access to ID cards in order to qualify their registration as members of a political party. And also, we are calling upon the leadership of the political parties’ council to coordinate with the immigration to verify names and ID cards presented by political parties as their members for registration, so that we avoid using ghost names and ghost ID cards for registration of political parties, as the country is expecting looming elections, citizens’ access to ID cards is very important,” Yakani said.
