LIVE: Kadaga versus Oulanyah election 2021

➡ Elections SPEAKER
✳ Kadaga
✳ Oulanyah
✳ Ssemujju

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT & URN  | The start of the election for the Speaker of the 11th Parliament will delay, as several MPs are yet to get to Kololo.

MPs are still getting clearance, an invitation card and COVID-19 certificates, from the parliament building in the centre of the city. The voting should have started at 10.00am, but by 11am, close to 100 MPs were yet to reach Kololo, the venue for the election.

The clerk to parliament has issued the order paper for the 1st sitting of the 11th parliament in which the contentious speaker and deputy speaker races will be decided by a vote pic.twitter.com/cgymqUr05O

— Mujuni Raymond (@qataharraymond) May 24, 2021

The Central Executive Committee (CEC) of the ruling party NRM last night set the stage for a bruising battle when they picked Jacob Oulanyah as their choice of flag bearer over Rebecca Kadaga. She hours later announced she will stand as an independent.

 Kadaga has been Speaker of the 9th and 10th Parliament and previously Deputy Speaker for the 7th and 8th Parliament.

The NRM has at least 337 of the 529 members of the eleventh parliament.  In the same house, there are 73 independent candidates, 43 of whom initially belonged to the ruling party, and fell off after losing the party primaries.

NRM leaning Independent MP, Juliet Kinyamatama (Rakai Woman Representative), Forum for Democratic Change-FDC’s Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda and  Bukoto Central MP  Richard Ssebamala of DP have also expressed interest in the same position.

CEC meeting

According to sources that attended the meeting, Oulannyah used the recent performance of the National Resistance Movement in Northern Uganda in recent polls to justify his achievements, pointing out that NRM secured more than 80 per cent of the votes in the region compared to the dismal performance from Busoga region and Eastern Uganda, where Kadaga comes from.

He also reminded members about his respect for the decision of the Central Executive Committee and the party chairman, when in 2016, he was asked to step down for  Kadaga to allow her complete 10 years as Speaker.  But Kadaga reportedly accused Oulanyah of insubordination, dodging work and traveling all the time.

The matter is now to be presented before the NRM Caucus composed of NRM Members of Parliament and Independent-leaning MPs. Oulanyah will reportedly be the only candidate for NRM and will not be subjected to an election in the caucus, while the contestant for the Deputy Speaker could be subjected to a contest, according to the source.

The Central Executive Committee  is the second-highest organ of the National Resistance Movement-NRM party after the National Delegates Conference. Its membership includes the chairman of the party Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, his two national vice-chairpersons, Haj Moses Kigongo and Rebecca Kadaga, six regional chairpersons who are joined by the Secretary-General of the NRM, her deputy, the treasurer, chairpersons of leagues such as the youth, women, veterans, the Prime Minister and the Government Chief Whip.

According to the NRM constitution, CEC performs functions such as providing and exercising political leadership in the country, formulating policy for consideration by the National Executive Conference (NEC), supervising the day to day conduct of the NRM’s activities, appointing organizational functionaries from amongst members of  NRM and propagating NRM policies.

CEC also recommends candidates seeking nomination for the offices of National Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson, Secretary-General, Deputy Secretary-General and National Treasurer and Presidential candidate for NRM. It implements the decisions of the National Conference and NEC among others.