National Legislative Assembly in Juba, June 2013. Photo: Murray Olds/EyeRadio

Legislators at the national parliament have been urged to assist the executive in meeting the expectations of the citizens on education, health, infrastructure and the economy as shown in the opinion poll conducted by the International Republican Institute this year.

The IRI presented the results of a recent opinion poll to members of parliament yesterday.

The polling – on what citizens feel about the economy, security, democracy and service delivery – was done throughout the ten states.

IRI’s Country director Gabriela Serrano told Eye Radio that the survey can act as a tool to meet citizen’s needs and demands:

“….there is a lot of civic education that can be done when they go back to their constituencies to inform how the government is doing and what the government is doing.”

Miss Serrano said better services delivery will reduce insecurity and boost development in the country.

At the presentation, the SPLM-DC chief whip Andrew Okony Ayom said many people have not been receiving services to satisfy their needs due lack of proper government policies.

“Some of our nephews may not be getting quality education because some of our children are getting education abroad.

“There is something wrong about policies of education, so, these areas also need to be addressed.

“They have no access to water; they will definitely say the government is not taking care of them because they are not getting water.

“Even the country internal border is source of insecurity in some areas and that cannot be denied.

“I think that report is good so that next time the response from the public may not be the same because definitely there will be improvement in services.”

IRI’s polling – which was one of the first national opinion polls conducted in South Sudan -was released late last month.