President Museveni used elections for the NRM flag bearers for the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) to warn aspirants against looking at elections as avenues for getting jobs.
“This election is just an election; elections are not employment bureaus that you are here to give jobs to jobless people but people who will support the integration process,” Museveni, who was clad in a casual yellow shirt, said.
On February 4 during a meeting of members of the Central Executive Committee (CEC), NRM’s second-highest decision-making organ, Museveni eventually agreed that the NRM caucus should elect the party’s six flag bearers. As early as 8am yesterday, several buses were parked along Parliamentary avenue to transport the legislators to State House Entebbe.
Once at State House, the MPs waited till about 12:30pm for Museveni to enter the conference hall to kick off the electoral process. As soon as the Government Chief Whip Ruth Nankabirwa made the introductory remarks, Museveni got to the microphone to educate MPs on the importance of the East African Community, EAC.
He also responded to reports, largely carried by Kenyan media, that he voted against the Kenyan foreign minister Aminah Mohammed during elections for the African Union (AU) commission chair during the 28th meeting of the AU last week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
In a veiled statement to his Kenyan compatriots, Museveni said the interest in the election of the AU commission chairperson was in a broader picture of African integration.
“Recently, we were in Addis Ababa [for the AU elections] and I saw people [saying] that this one did not elect that… the purpose was not electing, for us that is really an implementation exercise, the bigger effort is to know what is involved in integration,” Museveni said.
He repeated his opposition to using the AU for political integration but urged MPs not to look at EAC as a merely economic bloc.
“EAC is not only about trade but a bigger political federation. Some have argued that we have blocs like [Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa] COMESA, yes, we can have that for markets but EAC is for both economic and political integration,” Museveni said.
“We want to reassemble our people who were scattered by colonialists. This artificiality [borders] which was created by colonialists should be removed,” he said.
MEDIA OUT
As he spoke, some MPs chanted slogans in his praise but some would chant names of their favoured candidates for Eala. At intervals, he would pause and gesture in response to the chants.
At about 12:59pm, Museveni asked his handlers to lead journalists out of the State House conference hall to a holding room so that the caucus could deal with the electoral issues. By then, the number of aspirants had reduced from 43 to 38. With the journalists out, Museveni changed his tone, warning the MPs and the contestants against bribes.
“I have received information of bribery, I didn’t want to act before warning; next time this happens, I will take action,” Museveni said.
He later moved out of the conference hall to meet waiting foreign diplomats, leaving NRM vice chairman Al-hajj Moses Kigongo in charge.
ODOI Vs LUMUMBA
Later, the NRM electoral commission (EC) chairman, Dr Tanga Odoi, opened the floor for the contestants to address the caucus. The first candidate on the podium, former Kakuuto MP Mathias Kasamba, did not complete his address. Some candidates protested that there were no clear guidelines on how the election was going to be conducted.
Eventually and perhaps unsurprisingly, Odoi later clashed with Justine Kasule Lumumba, the NRM secretary general. Odoi announced that the MPs were to choose seven contestants, five from the various regions (Central, East West, North and Kampala) and two others representing special-interest groups, but Lumumba disagreed.
She accused Odoi of trying to rewrite the NRM electoral rules for choosing the Eala candidates. She said there was no need to move away from the rules that applied in 2012 proposing that the MPs choose six people; at least two of them female candidates.
His position was supported by female legislators who were demanding that 40 percent of the six slots that NRM is vouching for be taken by women. Under the circumstances, Lumumba said, they would do away with the slot for Kampala so that they avoid the confusion that would come with sending seven names to Parliament as opposed to six.
Lumumba’s suggestion, however, angered some of the candidates such as Sarah Kagingo who had been campaigning under Kampala. She accused her of trying to usurp Odoi’s powers.
Amid angry exchanges between Lumumba and Odoi, Nankabirwa attempted to calm the tempers but she failed. She, instead, called for a lunch break. The confusion moved to State House’s dining area, where MPs expressed fear that the two NRM bosses could tear the party apart.
“It seems these two people have a serious problem and I think it would be better for us to use this chance to have their misunderstandings solved once and for all,” an MP said.
Since they were appointed to the secretariat in January 2015, Lumumba and Odoi have not had the best of relations. Their tenure has been characterized by public squabbles with each accusing the other of disrespect.
KASAMBA UNOPPOSED
At the resumption of the caucus meeting, Tanga Odoi asked the aspirants to fill new nomination forms, based on the regions where they come from. The change worked in Mathias Kasamba’s favour; four of the other candidates who had registered under Central region changed to Kampala, while Joseph Kifomusana Mugambe stood down, leaving Kasamba unchallenged.
But former Bunyole MP Emmanuel Dombo protested the unfair change of rules. He lodged a complaint with the party leadership, saying he hoped it would help future elections to be more transparent.
“How can it be fair when you are changing the rules of the game midway? I came to compete as a Ugandan, not as an easterner, I can’t allow to be balkanised because to say that I should compete with only easterners is very unfair,” Dombo told journalists.
But the elections eventually got underway around 5:45pm.
MORE CHAOS
The MPs voted peacefully, but the tallying turned chaotic and put State House security on tension. MPs confronted Tanga Odoi, whom they accused of over-zealously invalidating ballots.
Tanga, who had rejected all ballots with seven names instead of six, rebuked the MPs: “You caused the confusion yourselves when you rejected the selection of seven names and we amended the rules together and you are now making noise; don’t take me to school,” he said.
This angered MPs, with some, notably state ministers Harunah Kasolo (Micro Finance) and Persis Namuganza (Lands) throwing barbs at Tanga. Eventually Alhajji Moses Kigongo tried to calm things down.
“This is a small issue that we can sort out without wasting time. Let us find a solution to this without heating ourselves up,” Kigongo said.
Tanga tried to interject, something that appeared to have got Kigongo so heated up he warned Tanga against intimidating people.
“We should avoid this language of intimidation. Let no one intimidate anybody,” Kigongo said.
He then directed that tallying of votes be done afresh to include the ballots that had seven names. But the re-tallying process also got mired in chaos, forcing the whole exercise to be suspended. MPs were told to return to State House today, Wednesday, at 2pm. It was not clear whether the MPs will vote afresh or Tanga Odoi will be counting the votes again.
sadabkk@observer.ug