Members of Parliament on the National Unity Platform-NUP have been warned against participating in the election of members of the East African Legislative Assembly-EALA scheduled for Thursday.
While addressing the media after a meeting of all opposition political parties represented in parliament, Manjeri Kyebakutikka, the deputy opposition chief whip said that the leadership of the party resolved that they will not front a candidate for the election, therefore, its members do not canvass for or support any candidate neither appear at parliament on Thursday.
Kyebakutikka also revealed that the party is going to challenge in court the elections because they don’t conform to the East African Community protocols.
The Leader of Opposition Mathias Mpuuga also noted that it was important for the parties to sit and agree on the way forward in regards to the EALA elections. He said it was unacceptable that the ruling National Resistance Movement-NRM after choosing its six candidates, also wants to determine the three candidates who will represent the opposition.
Mpuuga said that because each party is independent of the other, they had to first consult with their leaders before the entire opposition would announce a position on the election.
Despite efforts to come up with a united position, parties failed to agree on boycotting the election. Other than NUP and PPP, the other three opposition political parties; FDC, Jeema, UPC, and DP are presenting candidates.
Peter Okot the Whip of the Democratic Party said there was no way they are going to boycott the election because they had already nominated a candidate, Gerald Siranda, the DP Secretary General was nominated as the party candidate.
DP’s views were similar to those of UPC which through its whip Santa Alum Ogwanga, the Woman MP of Oyam said that the party leadership had already taken a stand that can’t be reversed.
Pipi Ojara, who represented the FDC in the meeting said his party is also not going to pull out its candidate in the race. FDC nominated Harold Kaija, the party deputy secretary general as their candidate for EALA.
For Santa Okot, the only MP on the People’s Progressive Party ticket representing the Alur North constituency, their party candidate Jeremiah Birungi pulled out of the race after realizing that NRM had effectively closed out other parties when it agreed to support six of its candidates and other candidates from other parties.