Cancel Museveni's nomination- Mbabazi to EC

Presidential aspirant Amama Mbabazi

Kampala.
The Electoral Commission continues to come under scrutiny over its postponement of the presidential nomination exercise by a month, with presidential aspirant Amama Mbabazi yesterday saying the body should cancel President Museveni’s nomination papers.

Mr Mbabazi also observed in a letter to the EC chairperson that since the NRM has not yet elected a presidential flag bearer, Mr Museveni illegally received nomination forms.

The EC should “immediately cease and desist from handling the presidential candidate nominations in a partisan … manner … NRM has not yet elected its presidential flag bearer for the 2016 presidential election. It therefore goes without saying that NRM could not have legally collected nomination papers, let alone soliciting signatures to support a non-existing flag bearer,” Mr Mbabazi said in a letter signed by his lawyers.

A day earlier, the FDC spokesperson, Mr Ibrahim Ssemujju, had accused the EC of violating its independence as provided for under the Constitution and yielding to compromise by the ruling party.

He said the commission pushed the dates forward so as to accommodate the ruling party which last month postponed its primaries which have now been scheduled for October 26.

EC chairperson Badru Kiggundu was also accused of working under the influence of NRM in the letter which said the body now has seven days within which to come clean on the nomination exercise failing which further legal action will be taken.

“Our client is deeply concerned about your ability to conduct the forthcoming presidential elections in an orderly and organised manner as required by the law despite having more than three years to prepare for it,” the four page letter states.

“Whereas the commission may extend the time to do any act pertaining to the electoral process, it can only do so under Section 50 of the EC Act by reason of mistake, miscalculation, emergency, unusual or unforeseen circumstances.”

In the last six months, the commission has revised the electoral road map and extended time for electoral activities five times.
Sticking to the earlier presidential candidate nomination dates of October 5-6, Mr Mbabazi states, would have led to an automatic disqualification of the NRM aspirant for lack of compliance with the law.

“It is now public knowledge that the granting of the latest extension of time is not caused by any emergency or amendment to the electoral laws as you claim,” the letter reads in part.
“It has been prompted by the need to illegally afford the NRM time to belatedly elect its flag bearer for President so that they can resubmit nomination papers and get their candidate nominated on the new dates in November 2015,” it adds.

Under the NRM constitution, a presidential candidate is chosen by the national delegates conference upon a recommendation of the party’s National Executive Council and Central Executive Committee. Whereas the two committees have cleared Mr Museveni’s candidature, the national delegates conference is slated to convene between November 1-2.

Regardless, the EC this week issued certificates of clearance for Mr Museveni, FDC candidate Dr Kizza Besigye and Mr Mbabazi.
When contacted for a comment yesterday, NRM spokesman Rogers Mulindwa said: “I am not aware that we have nominated President Museveni because one only becomes a candidate after nomination. We shall present him officially to the EC in November.”
Mr Jotham Taremwa, the EC spokesperson, yesterday said Mr Mbabazi’s protest letter is diversionary.

Mr Taremwa is one of three commission officials who were sued by Mr Mbabazi last week after they stopped him from holding public rallies yet the law allowing presidential aspirants to hold consultative meetings is silent on both the size of such a meeting, and the manner in which it should be conducted.
“We have a lot of work to do as the commission and you can be sure we shall not pay attention to diversionary tactics if that is their aim,” he said.

EC points to law
Last week, Mr Kiggundu told a press briefing that the extension of dates was due to recent amendments to the Presidential Elections Act and Parliamentary Elections Act. But his claim was contested yesterday by Mr Mbabazi who observed that none of the changes to the laws could have prompted an extension of the nomination timeline.

Among other provisions, the amendments lifted the traditional facilitation to presidential candidates, increased nomination fees from Shs8 million to Shs20 million and cutback polling time from 5pm to 4pm.