FDC, DP in Bitter Row Over EALA Slots

By Serestino Tusingwire

The Fo­rum for De­mo­c­ra­tic Change and the De­mo­c­ra­tic Party are reportedly in bitter row over the East African Legislative As­sem­bly seats.

The two have failed to agree on the candidates they should front to parliament for voting.

This comes on the heels of a letter writ­ten by the FDC Sec­re­tary Gen­eral Nathan Nan­dala Mafabi to the speaker de­scribing FDC as the only of­fi­cial op­po­si­tion party in parliament.

“FDC is the of­fi­cial op­po­si­tion in Par­lia­ment ac­cord­ing to the Con­sti­tu­tion of Uganda …” the let­ter reads in part.

The let­ter was in­tro­duc­ing two can­di­dates Flo­rence Ibi Ek­wau and In­grid Turi­nawe as the nom­i­nated choices for EALA.

How­ever, Nor­bert Mao, the DP Pres­i­dent re­acted with a bit­ter at­tack on the FDC as a party oc­cu­pied by self­ish in­di­vid­u­als.

“…with their self-con­ceited let­ter, they ego­is­ti­cally pre­sent them­selves as “the op­po­si­tion” in par­lia­ment…true they are the of­fi­cial op­po­si­tion but the high­est num­ber of non-NRM mem­bers in par­lia­ment are in­de­pen­dents…,”  Mao in­di­cated in a re-bat­tle State­ment.

Mao also said that the mo­tive of FDC was aimed at rupturing the in­de­pen­dence of the party but would not suc­ceed since DP had learnt how to boldly ne­go­ti­ate for its in­ter­ests.

“This should ex­plain the des­per­ate tone of Nan­dala Mafabi’s let­ter on the EALA elec­tions…FDC will now have to learn Kennedy’s les­son that “we must not fear to ne­go­ti­ate and not ne­go­ti­ate out of fear,” State Mao.

However, Joseph Sewungu (Kalungu west) who dou­bles as the De­mo­c­ra­tic Whip in Par­lia­ment said that his party would not be dragged into un­clear fights for EALA po­si­tions since his can­di­date, Fred Mukasa Mbidde was al­ready nom­i­nated.

On Wednes­day Mbidde re­turned his nom­i­na­tion forms to the of­fice of the Clerk to Par­lia­ment and awaits nom­i­na­tion at the floor of par­lia­ment on vot­ing day, which is yet to be fixed.

It should be noted that Uganda sends 9 members to EALA and 6 of those come from the leading NRM party, leaving the opposition party with only 3 slots.

UPC presented one, DP one, and FDC two, which makes it four people vying for the three slots.

About Post Author

Staff Writer

administrator

See author's posts