last week on Tuesday, the ruling party caucus convened at State House Entebbe to endorse 6 candidates for the Eat African Legislative Assembly (eala).
Unlike other political parties which conducted the exercise in harmony, the NRM polls turned chaotic and threats of fist fighting between the electoral chairman Prof. Tanga Odoi and secretary general Justine Kasule Lumumba reigned on.
It took the intervention of the party chairman, His Excellency President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni as tempers flared. He thus suspended the elections to the following day (Wednesday).
Lumumba and her cohort accused Odoi of deliberately misleading the process by changing the normal mode of voting.
New rules
Previously the party electoral body had agreed on gender balance while selecting the representatives (3 men and 3 women) but last Tuesday the caucus was dismayed to learn the change of modus operandi by Prof Odoi.
“This prompted the SG-Lumumba to question why they would shy away from the traditional method of voting. She insisted this would cause chaos in Parliament which Tanga vehemently protested,” an MP
Instead the professor from Budama said that each region would have one representative.
It is at this point that Lydia Wanyonto, the chairperson of NRM women’s league expressed concerns why Tanga was sidelining the slot of special interest group.
“He told the caucus that since the regions are 5, and as mandated the party must have a women representative in East African Parliament therefore NRM would have 7 slots including an MP for special interest groups,” an official who attended the chaotic caucus said.
Lumumba opposed the idea of fronting 7 candidates which would leave opposition and independent s with only 2.
“Lumumba reiterated that leaving 2 positions for other parties would cause chaos on the voting day 27th,” said the source. Most members of the caucus backed her argument.
But Tanga ordered for polling which didn’t go down well with Lumumba.
The two started exchanging verbal artilleries accusing each other of overstepping their powers.
This forced President Museveni to intervene and suspended voting until the process is streamlined.
Grilling
Museveni summoned Tanga and the two held closed door meeting for over 3 hours at State House.
“Their meeting began at 9pm and ended past midnight,” a source said.
Without divulging much of the details, a source added that Museveni told Tanga how he was not happy with way he was handling issues as electoral boss without considering the image of the party.
“Museveni wondered why NRM elections end up in fist fighting since Tanga took over as EC chairman,” a source said.
The President also raised claims whether Tanga is an agent of opposition as the media has been portraying him.
“But Tanga was quick to defend himself saying he is working under difficult conditions where most party bigwigs undermine his works. And therefore work tirelessly to fail him.”
The former Makerere don denied collaborating with opposition.
Having agreed with the Head of State on how to peacefully handle polls, the next day the process was successful and the party selected six candidates thus dropping the 7th slot.
