Opposition parties have rushed to the East African Court of Justice in Arusha to contest the ongoing election for Uganda’s representatives to the East African legislative Assembly-EALA. The opposition accuses the ruling National Resistance Movement-NRM of breaching the treaty by the dictating the number of its EALA representatives.
Last evening, Abdu Katuntu, the shadow attorney left for Arusha to file a petition before the EAC court of Justice shortly after chairing a meeting with several opposition lawyers to finalize a legal documents contesting the polls. The opposition wants the EAC court to compel the Parliament of Uganda to act within the confines of Article 50 of the Treaty that forms the EAC.
Katuntu insists that all parties should be represented in EALA and not the party which has the majority MPs. Art 50 (1) stipulate that the National Assembly of each Partner State shall elect, not from among its members, nine members of the Assembly, who shall represent as much as it is feasible, the various political parties represented in the National Assembly, shades of opinion, gender and other special interest groups in that Partner State, in accordance with such procedure as the National Assembly of each Partner State may determine.
The leader of opposition, Nandala Mafabi has confirmed to URN that a team of opposition legal brains is already in Arusha to file the suit blocking the EALA elections until Uganda complies with the treaty. They include Wandera Ogalo, the FDC lawyer, Mukasa Mbide, Democratic Party, Paul Mwiru, the Jinja East MP, and Odonga Otto Aruu county MP.
But Fred Ruhindi, the deputy attorney general maintains the party with the largest number ought to elect more legislators. Last week, Parliament approved a new set of rules to guide the election of Uganda’s representatives to the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA).
The regulations provide that the election of members to EALA shall take into consideration the various political parties and organizations represented in Parliament, shades of opinion, gender and other special interest groups. Elections of Uganda’s representatives had stalled following an order by the East African Court of Justice to the Uganda Parliament to amend its rules to conform to article 50 of the treaty establishing the East African Community.
The Parliamentary Committee on rules chaired by MP Fox Odoi proposed that the elections should be conducted after consultations and consensus by the political parties and other members of Parliament. The rules also empower the Speaker to put matters to vote where consensus is not reached by the political parties.
But opposition legislators stormed out of the chamber protesting the failure to adopt proposals made by the Leader of the Opposition Nandala Mafabi. He had proposed that all the six political parties in the ninth parliament be represented in the regional assembly taking into consideration the interests of independents, gender and any other special interest groups.
His motion was not adopted by Parliament. Parliament has set aside May 30 as Election Day.
