As the race to join the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) enters the final stretch, prospective candidates have intensified their campaign to join the regional parliament.
The polls are likely to take place before the end of this month. Nowhere has competition been stiffer than within the ruling NRM party, which is entitled to a majority of the nine slots reserved for Uganda.
The party’s Central Executive Committee (Cec) met yesterday to draw the rules that will guide it in the vetting of the more than 20 people who were successfully nominated by the party’s electoral commission this week. Another Cec meeting is scheduled for tomorrow (Saturday) where the selection could take place.
Sources told The Observer yesterday that some candidates could be lured out of the race by President Museveni even before the meeting. The campaigns have heated up with some watering down the aspirations of their opponents.
The main targets of the attacks are Mary Mugyenyi, the former Nyabushozi MP and Capt Francis Babu, the former Kampala Central MP. Some of the younger candidates believe the two are in the evenings of their political careers and, therefore, ought to leave the stage for a younger generation.
Babu is husband to Margaret Zziwa, the former Eala speaker, who was controversially impeached in 2014. On Monday, Babu told journalists that Eala needs “people who are politically-mature and are not motivated by money.”
Meanwhile, some candidates have invested virtually everything to ensure that they join Eala. For instance, Henry Banyenzaki, the former Rubanda West MP, often ‘takes out’ NRM MPs for lunch.
One MP who preferred anonymity intimated to The Observer he attended Banyenzaki’s lunch meeting at Mosa Court last week but was given a ‘modest’ transport refund of Shs 200,000.
Banyenzaki has also reportedly commissioned an opinion poll, among NRM MPs, to gauge his support.
On his part, Yona Musinguzi, the former Ntungamo municipality MP, dished out free wall clocks to some MPs on Monday. Some candidates have even gone to the extent of lobbying journalists, drivers of MPs and parliamentary staff. Since these work closely with MPs, they can ‘say good things about them.’
Yet amidst all this intense lobbying, sources said, it will ultimately come down to who President Museveni thinks should represent NRM in Eala. Museveni is said to be unhappy with NRM’s outgoing Eala MPs over the chaotic way they handled the election of Uganda first Eala speaker and later how they often squabbled, leading to the censure of Zziwa.
OPPOSITION PARTIES
Despite FDC being the biggest opposition party in parliament, it is not a guarantee that it will take one of the three previously slots reserved for the opposition and independents.
Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, the FDC spokesperson, said the party had notified Speaker Rebecca Kadaga that the rules pertaining to the election of Eala MPs in Uganda were still vague.
For instance, he said, it is not clear which formula has been used to arrive at the number of slots each party is entitled to.
“The leader of the opposition met the speaker to express our position. We can only wait and see whether our concerns will be addressed,” Ssemujju said yesterday.
Disagreements over the election criteria in 2012 led FDC to boycott the Eala election. So far, the frontrunners for the Eala slots in FDC include Florence Ibi Ekwau, the former Kaberamaido Woman MP and Ingrid Turinawe, the party’s secretary for mobilization.
The current occupants of the slots [DP’s Fred Mukasa Mbidde, UPC’s Chris Opoka and Susan Nakawuki] have already expressed interest to be re-elected and have been campaigning vigorously.
The trio have also sought the support and backing of President Museveni. They attended the January 26 NRM celebrations in Masindi where Museveni referred to Mbidde as a “good DP.”
Sources told us that of the three, Mbidde, barring any major political setback, will make it back to Eala. Nakawuki, an independent, is also said to have good rapport and relationship with many NRM MPs.
In Masindi, she constantly flashed NRM’s thumps-up gesture whenever she thought the president had made an interesting point. UPC’s Opoka is the one whose re-election is far from certain. He enjoys the support from the Jimmy Akena-led UPC faction that pledged to work with Museveni.
The official nominations for Eala by the national parliament are scheduled to start on February 9, with each contestant required to get the backing of at least20MPs.
ekiggundu@observer.ug
