Three sitting Members of Parliament from Teso region subscribing to the opposition Forum for Democratic Change-FDC party have been barred from taking part in the ongoing nomination exercise until they resolve pending issues at the party headquarters.
The legislators are; Elijah Okupa, Angelline Osege and Edmund Herbert Ariko.
Trouble for the trio with the party stem from the party elections held in 2017 where they all supported Maj Gen. Gregory Mugisha Muntu, against Patrick Oboi Amuriat, the eventual winner.
Gen Muntu has since broken ties from FDC to form his own party, the Alliance for National Transformation- ANT. Now, the FDC accuses the MPs to have abandoned the party and all its activities.
The FDC District Registrar in Serere Sam Olupot says they could not nominate Okupa as the FDC flag holder in the Kasilo County Parliamentary race before seeking clearance from the party leadership. He noted that Okupa has not been paying his dues to the party, a situation that requires clearance before his nomination.
Meanwhile in Soroti, Jane Acen the party chairperson says they were given strict guidelines by the FDC top organ not to nominate the members until they are cleared. However, only Osege expressed interest in picking nomination forms while Ariko has remained silent.
But, Angelline Osege says she will contest for the parliamentary seat with or without FDC, adding that since the government was funding party activities, there was no need to continue remitting funds to the party without clear objectives.
On his part, Hon Ariko said he is yet to pick forms from the FDC offices, which he insists- he still belongs to. He however downplayed concerns of not remitting membership dues, saying that he has been solely contributing to the rent of the party offices in Soroti until 2018 when he took leave.
The party has so far nominated Moses Attan Okia for the Soroti Municipality Parliamentary seat, which he lost to Ariko in 2016, Anne Adeke Ebaju for the Soroti Woman MP seat from the female youth MP seat currently holds and James Emaju has been nominated to contest in Kasilo County.
The FDC Spokesperson Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda however claims ignorance, claiming he is not aware of the developments. He added though, that the party cannot tolerate double standard members.
