A section of national assembly MPs and politicians have questioned the procedure of amending the constitution to accommodate more states.

37 MPs representing the Equatoria region, and the Nuer Parliamentary Caucus in the National Legislative Assembly, say the amendment of the constitution did not follow the right procedures.

On Thursday, the national legislature removed reference to 10 states from the constitution, although it did not mention the 28 states announced in October by the President.

In the extraordinary sitting of the national legislature, members voted by two third in support of the order.

However, some lawmakers boycotted the sitting.

Thomas Wani Kundu represents 37 MPs from Equatoria who boycotted the sitting. He says the parliament did not follow the legal procedures.

Hon Wani told Eye Radio that the bill should have been taken to the Council of States before the national assembly discussed it.

“Procedurally, this could have been the proper way of tendering it, but our speaker decided to proceed with the amendment of the constitution without indicating even the number of ten states, as it clearly came in the Article 162,” Hon Kundu said.

The Nuer Parliamentarian Caucus also has also expressed rejection of the amendment.

The group comprises of 24 Members of Parliament representing constituencies from the Greater Upper Nile region.

They say the priority should be restoring peace and carrying out of a national healing process across the country.

“The vulnerable people, the affected people in South Sudan, in this case it is us. We have almost two years without seeing our people on the ground. The priority for us is peace. The creation of the 28 states is really contradictory with peace agreement, meaning that, we are not for the 28 states,” said Hon John Badeng Chan, Secretary General of the Nuer Parliamentary Caucus.

“Number two; there is supposed to be a national healing process. And let the whole nation discuss it, and express interest on it. It is not for a certain group to create this. We are not going to be a part and parcel of this.”

The SPLM in Opposition and members of the international community have criticized the order, saying it is against the peace agreement.

The National Alliance of opposition political parties led by Dr Lam Akol also sued the government in October, asking the court to stop implementation of the order and declare it as invalid.

The court is yet to rule on the petition.

No quorum

Meanwhile, the leader of the opposition National Alliance, Dr Lam Akol, says the amendment of the transitional constitution to accommodate more states is illegal.

The speaker of parliament, Hon Manasseh Magok Rundial, said there were 189 MPs in the house.

Dr Akol says this number did not generate enough quorum of two thirds required by the constitution to make the amendments.

He says the current number of MPs in the assembly is 297.

Dr Akol told Eye Radio that there should have been 198 members to allow the parliament to discuss the amendment.

“The speaker himself announced that the members who were present in the house were 189; which means the quorum was not reached. Yet it continued,” he said.

The opposition MPs, led by the Leader of Minority, Adigo Nyikwec, walked out of the sitting in protest. They called up on IGAD to speak against the amendment.

For his part, the government chief whip says there was enough quorum.

Hon Tulio Odongi says there were more than 200 MPs.

“The quorum in our code of conduct for a national assemble is 141. That one was 189. The quorum was enough to start the meeting,” Hon Odongi argued.

(Additional information by Magdoline, Tethluach, and Akile)