A group of Advocates known as the Advocates Alliance on Wednesday declared their candidates who will vie for the president and other vacancies at the South Sudan Bar Association.  

The Bar Association has been in crisis over the last few years with several factions led by different people claiming legitimacy. 

A Supreme Court ruling on 20 March resolved the legal concerns, dissolved the former Bar Associations, and provided a roadmap for the conduct of credible, free, and fair elections for the South Sudan Bar Bar Association. 

Addressing a news conference at the Judiciary headquarters in Juba, Advocate Wani Stephen, the head of the media campaign team of the Advocates Alliance, announced that they have chosen Advocate Arop Malueth Manon as their candidate for president, Advocate Emmanuel Abraham Gandhi for the position of deputy president, and Stephen Martin Nechar for the position of a secretary general of the Bar Association 

Wani said their group reaffirms their steadfast commitment to their vision of establishing a stronger, unified, independent, efficient, and professional Bar Association in South Sudan. 

“We do hereby declare our readiness to participate in the upcoming electoral processes, and we urge all advocates in the Republic of South Sudan to join our campaign to end the leadership dispute in the Bar Association to realize the aspirations of all advocates and lawyers in South Sudan,” he stated. 

The advocate said his group is aware of the gaps created by the absence of a legitimate Bar Association and the deteriorating status of the legal profession, the negative impact of the status quo on the Bar and the overall decline in professionalism, and the surge in lack of accountability and lack of transparency in the former Bar Associations’ leadership. 

For his part, Advocate Arop Malueth Manon, the aspiring presidential candidate for the Bar Association, said the lawyers in the country have suffered for a long time due to divisions.

“We as lawyers have been suffering all this long by the divisions in the Bar Association and we felt that the role that should be played by the lawyers in South Sudan is absent simply because of the lack of organization,” he stated. “Therefore, we want to organize ourselves as lawyers so that we reclaim our rightful place in the society and to deliver services to the people. We as lawyers are expected to educate our people and to uphold the rule of law and to speak for the people whose rights have been infringed upon.”

Malueth added: “Therefore, the existence of the Bar Association is very important being provided by the constitution and by an Act enacted by parliament and signed by the president.”