A Sudanese man holds the flag of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement in JubaAfter an overwhelming result of almost 99% of the voters backing up independence in January’s referendum provided by 2005’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended two decades of North-South civil war, Salva Kiir Mayardit, the president of the Government of Southern Sudan formed a committee to work on a constitutional text. Last week, the minister of legal affairs, John Luk Jok, handed the draft of the proposed Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan to President Kiir, who will study the transitional constitutional and subsequently forward it to the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly (SSLA) for approval.

The draft South Sudan Transitional Constitution says the president of the republic will serve for four years starting the official date of secession. Secession is scheduled to become official on 9 July of this year. Similar to the US, the term of office for president and vice president is four years.

The parliament of Juba after inauguration of the Republic of South Sudan in July is also defined by the transitional constitution. It will comprise of the current members of SSLA and members of parliament currently representing southern Sudanese in Khartoum. However, the proposed constitution notes that the cabinet ministers in Khartoum will be members of South Sudan parliament without a voting power.

The document states that the National Legislature will be made up of the National Legislative Assembly and the Council of State.

A key factor in the document provides for the establishment of independent commissions on Relief and Rehabilitation; National Anti-Corruption; Demobilisation, Disarmament and Re-integration; HIV/Aids; and Human Rights.

The Transitional Constitution further states that the Bank of South Sudan will be responsible for the production of a new currency, which will “reflect the historical and cultural diversity of the country”. English will be the “official working language of the Republic of South Sudan”. For many people in South Sudan Arabic is currently their lingua franca.

Significantly, the constitution defines the territory of the Republic of South Sudan and emphasise that “the territory of the nine Ngok Dinka chiefdoms transferred from Bahr el Ghazal Province to Kordofan Province in 1905 as defined by the Abyei Arbitration Tribunal Award of July 2009”.

Sovereignty of the Abyei is controversial as the borderlands between North and South Sudan is oil-rich and fertile land and the ethnic origin of its inhabitants is a matter of dispute. Controversy surrounds the inclusion of Misseriya tribal group in a delayed referendum, which will decide area’s future. The nomadic Misseriya, who are associated with North Sudan, spend part of year in Abyei, where the Ngok Dinka resides. Tensions in the area are rising as the military presence increases.

But, not everyone is South Sudan welcomes the Transitional Constitutional. On Tuesday 26 April 2011, South Sudan’s opposition slammed the proposed interim constitution as “dictatorial”, concentrating power in the hands of the ruling party and pushing back post-independence elections. “This is an exclusive constitution for the SPLM,” Peter Adwok Otto, the spokesman for the south's main opposition party, SPLM-Democratic Change, said referring to the ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement. “We think it is dictatorial and we reject it,” he said.

By Elisabeth Koek