South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Simon Deng
The South Sudan Bar Association (SSBA) has elected Arop Malueth Manon as it’s new president at the just concluded elections held in Juba.
Malueth who was fronted by the Advocates Alliance camp trounced Reech Ring Bol of Reform and Prosperity Group in a hotly contested election on Wednesday.
The new president of the lawyers association garnered 716 votes against 700 votes of his rival Bol.
A total of 1421 lawyers from Juba, Aweil, Renk and Wau cast their votes in the election.
Kulang Jeroboam Macuor, a Judge on the Court of Appeal and also chairperson of the electoral committee announced late evening Malueth as the winner of the election sparking wild celebration from his camp.
“The votes were counted in the presence of agents of the candidates; the votes from States are the ones which decided the winner,”Macuor told journalists.
The electoral committee consisted of two judges, two officials from the ministry of Justice and constitutional affairs and four lawyers.
The South Sudan Bar Association split into two factions in 2016, following the untimely death of it’s then president William Kon Bior.
James Al-Teib, his successor led one faction and his rival Issa Muzamil Sebit led another faction.
However, the Supreme Court on March 20, 2024 suspended the South Sudan Bar Association from the Judicial Service Commission and set 60 days ultimatum to conduct credible, free and fair elections to elect a substantive leadership of the lawyers’ association.
For his part, the incoming president of the South Sudan Bar Association Malueth, told journalists that the executive body of the association in a sign of inclusion will include members from the Reform and Prosperity Group.
“It has been our dream to have a bar association that is elected, all these years we have lacked credible leadership, we have elected the body and I call on my colleagues to unite, forget the past and work together for the benefit of lawyers and for the benefit of our people,” he said.
