South Sudan’s president has ‘returned’ to parliament the security bill that he previously supported, 69 days after loyalists said it was passed in a controversial sitting that others said lacked quorum.

According to President Salva Kiir’s press secretary Ateny Wek, the National Security Service Bill 2014 was passed on 8 October but the president objected to the bill on 16 December, returning it to parliament.

This means that the president waited 69 days to give his reasons for withholding assent to the bill, a period more than twice the time allowed for by the constitution.  

Under Article 85 of the constitution, the president only has 30 days to reject a bill or else it automatically becomes law: “If the president withholds assent for thirty days without giving reasons, the bill shall be deemed to have been so signed,” reads article 85 of the constitution. 

This means that if the bill were in fact passed by the parliament on 8 October, then it has already become law.

It is unclear why the president waited longer than the constitutionally allowable period to return the bill to parliament.

However, some MPs have said that a quorum was not reached when the vote on the bill was taken last October, and the clerk of the assembly failed to produce a written record of attendance to prove a quorum.

The vote on 8 October was taken as a voice vote and not as a recorded vote. The exact number of MPs who boycotted the sitting compared to the number of those who remained to vote for the bill is therefore not clear; previously ‘hundreds’ of MPs were reported absent at the time of the vote. 

It remains unclear when the bill will come up for a vote again.

Meanwhile, the continuing absence of a law governing the National Security Service means that it still operates without any legal remit, save for a constitutional provision to “focus on information gathering, analysis and advice to the relevant authorities.”

According to the constitution, South Sudan’s National Security Service is “under the direct supervision of the President.” Under the terms of the proposed bill, officers of the Service will be required to take a loyalty oath before the president.

Related:

Factbox: ‘Quorum’ in South Sudan’s constitution and politics (29 Nov.)

Kiir to try again to pass his security bill (27 Nov.) 

Dossier: Reporting on the National Security Service Bill, 2014 (18 Oct.)