In unprecedented twist of events the powerful opposition political party-FDC has appealed to its opponents in Parliament to weigh in on its East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) candidates, Ingrid Turinawe Kamateneti and Florence Ibbi ekwau as they face off with other contestants from different political affiliations.
Parliament will today convene to vote for only 9 representatives out of 47 contenders; by virtue of its numerical strength the NRM without doubt will have all its 6 candidates go through while opposition and independents tussle it out for the remaining 3 slots.
It is against this backdrop that FDC secretary general Hon Nandala Mafabi has desperately written to NRM legislators to consider the duo’s candidature.
“We as a country are operating a multiparty dispensation whereby our parliamentary practice is only two sided. These sides are determined by numerical strength. Therefore, owing to the fact that the NRM has allocated itself 6 slots out of 9 provided,” Mafabi explained.
He added: “Its only logical that the party which must have the next highest number of representation is FDC because it has the highest numerical strength.”
He said this was the logical behind sending two candidates for consideration in parliament despite the fact that Ingrid was floored internally.
“To that, this is my plea to you; kindly pay attention to the doctrine of multiparty politics. Opposition party doesn’t mean enmity but having divergent view. To enhance multiparty politics support the two FDC candidates. Let multiparty flourish.”
Mafabi’s letter comes high on heels of reports which sent shivers down the FDC political spine that the NRM caucus yesterday agreed in unison to vote out the strongest opposition party.
In 2012, FDC failed to send a representative to the assembly as they remained stuck on the interpretation of numerical strength. DP and UPC however fronted its members who were elected by Parliament. The same MPs Fred Mukasa Mbidde (DP) and Chris Opoka (UPC) remain a big threat to FDC.
Against this background, TrumpetNews last week published an article why FDC is likely to have no representation in the regional parliament.