All set for election of Speaker on Friday

🔴 Election of Speaker

TODAY
➡ Picking forms NRM secretariat
WEDNESDAY
➡ CEC NRM meeting
THURSDAY
➡ NRM Caucus meeting
FRIDAY
➡ Elections

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Members of Parliament will sit on Friday, March 25, to elect the new speaker of Parliament following the death of Jacob Oulanyah.

Oulanyah who doubled as the Omoro County legislator and Vice-Chairperson of the ruling National Resistance Movement – NRM party for Northern Uganda becomes Uganda’s first ever serving speaker to die in office. He was flown out of the country on February 3, 2022, for specialized treatment following a referral by doctors at Mulago Hospital where he was admitted before his condition deteriorated.

However, the Constitution provides that no business shall be transacted in Parliament other than an election to the office of Speaker at any time that the office falls vacant.

The election, under the circumstances, will be presided over by the Chief Justice or a judge designated by the Chief Justice, until the new speaker takes an oath.

The new speaker will then preside over the session to eulogize his predecessor who died on Sunday from a hospital in Seattle, Washington.

Information minister Chris Baryomunsi told the media Monday afternoon that political parties can start their internal processes to select their candidates who will contest for the speakership in a process that will be presided over by the Chief Justice and managed by the Clerk to the National Assembly.

Meanwhile, the Government Chief Whip Thomas Tayebwa had called a special caucus of the ruling National Resistance Movement-NRM Party to discuss the election of the next speaker of Parliament.

The meeting had been scheduled to be held on Thursday, March 24, at Kololo Independence grounds. It is not yet clear if the meeting will be brought forward as it seems not to have taken into account that the election would be just hours away.

Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka says the government will give a formal communication on what legal and practical steps will be followed.

“I know what the law is but let’s be sensitive to the feelings of the family,” he had said before Baryomunsi’s announcement. “Can’t we allow the news to first sink in so that the government can reorganize itself before we can think of interpretations?

It now appears the “sinking in” has been allowed only hours.

Kiryowa Kiwanuka explained that “giving legal answers without taking care of the practical aspects [such as funeral arrangements]” would leave more questions unanswered.

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