Every day that passes the battle for who will lead the 11th Parliament takes a higher note. The race on who will be the National Resistance Movement (NRM) flag bearer is now between Rebecca Kadaga and Jacob Oulanyah.
The fate of who will win now lies in the hands of NRM MPs who will soon hold a meeting to vote who will lead them.
However, the Chairman NRM Electoral Commission Dr. Tanga Odoi has clarified that independent Members of Parliament although leaning towards the party, will not be taking part in choosing the flag bearer for Speaker and Deputy Speaker of Parliament.
Dr. Tanga noted that only 337 NRM MPs in the 11th parliament will take part in deciding who will be the speaker and the deputy for the next five years.
According to him, in the last NRM primaries, 501 candidates participated in the process were some lost. However, some of the unfortunate candidates chose to contest as independents in the general election alluding that the party primaries were not free nor fair.
Of the independents that contested only 43 passed through to join the 11th Parliament. To the National Party chairman Gen Yoweri Museveni, the NRM leaning independents are not a problem to him that is why in the recently concluded NRM retreat at Kyankwanzi, all of them attended.
Nevertheless, to Dr. Tanga, no independent NRM leaning MP will be allowed in the premises when the party is choosing their flag bearers until they legalize their working relationship with the party and this will be through signing a Memorandum of Understanding.
“We don’t know them, therefore, they will not be taking part in the party’s parliamentary caucus meetings, first of all, they disobeyed the party’s decisions when they contested against the party’s flag bearers,” he said.
According to Dr Tanga’s programs, only NRM MPs will be expected to meet on Sunday, May 23 at Kololo Ceremonial Grounds to vote for the party’s flag bearer for the office of Speaker and the Deputy.
Today up to Friday, he will be receiving letters from candidates interested in the two positions. Then their names will be forwarded to the party’s Central Executive Committee that will sit on Saturday for vetting. Those who will be successful, their name will then be forwarded to the parliamentary caucus that will make the final decision through a secret ballot at Kololo.
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