Denis Namara, a former contestant in the NRM primary elections for EALA parliamentary candidates is challenging the poll results. He accuses the party caucus of failing to follow the rules set by his party govern the elections.
Namara, who is the NRM National Youth chairperson is accusing the party of flouting rule three which stipulates that in electing NRM EALA candidates, due regard shall be given to gender, regional and other special interest groups
It further prescribes that at least 40% of the opposition shall be reserved for women. While the NRM primaries respected the rule on women and regional representation, it ignored the special interest groups such as youth and persons with disability. It is on this basis that Namara is moving to petition the party for failing to follow this rule strictly.
The rules were formulated by the NRM Electoral commission and signed by its vice chairperson Prof. Elijah Mushemeza. The rules were issued on 19th May days before the party primaries. Namara came seventh in the primaries after polling 100 votes just behind Margaret Zziwa, who polled 101 votes. Namara has asked the party leadership to withdrawal Zziwa from the race and consider him under the special category, allow him participate in the main election or grant him permission to contest as an independent candidate.
Namara says he will pick the nomination forms before close of business to avert nasty surprises on his side.The nominations of the EALA elections are expected to wind up today at parliament by 5pm. Efforts to reach Prof. Elijah Mushemeza, NRM Electoral Commission Vice-chairperson were futile as his known mobile phone number was switched off. Ruhakana Rugunda, the NRM electoral commission chairman recently stepped aside citing conflict of interest because his son Kwame Rugunda was one of the candidates.
