EALA votes up for sale in Parliament

KAMPALA.

As the campaign for the much coveted East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) seats heats up, votes in Parliament are up to the highest bidder with legislators demanding cash and other inducements in exchange for their vote.

For the last two weeks, voter crowds and attention have been shifting to only candidates who have money to buy dinner, offer transport refund and or dish out mobilisation fees.

The matter is so serious that it reached the Central Executive Committee (CEC) of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), the biggest party in the national assembly.

During the CEC meeting last Friday, the NRM Electoral Commission chairman, Tanga Odoi, passed a warning.
“The Chairman of Electoral Commission said he had heard that money is exchanging hands and that if they get evidence they will disqualify the culprits.

If the MPs choose merit, we will be there,” said Mr Emmanuel Dombo, former MP in the last Parliament of Uganda who is now aspiring for a seat in the regional assembly.
He, however, said he had not been approached for money by anyone.

“I have not met MPs in a group. I am meeting them one by one and nobody has asked for money from me. Maybe they fear me because of my seniority in Parliament,” Mr Dombo said.

Several other candidates Daily Monitor approached revealed, albeit off record, that the campaign for Eala seats have been turned into a commercial venture by party members who also are members of the 10th Parliament.

To be an eligible voter within your party to vote a candidate for Eala, you must also be a Member of Parliament.

“The votes are going to the highest bidder,” one distraught candidate said in a telephone interview yesterday, but refused to be named. “Some (MPs) name their price and others wait for you to give,” the candidate added.

The candidate said MPs are demanding between Shs300,000 and Shs1m.

“The ceiling was started by those who started giving out money. My morale is very low. I may not manage because I do not have all the money to give out. We discussed it even with the [NRM] Electoral Commission. It is difficult to control. It is willing giver, willing receiver. People will tell you directly that they can’t give you their vote just like that. You must pay for it,” the candidate said.

Ms Mary Mugyenyi, one of the aspirants on the NRM party ticket, said: “It’s happening and it’s sad that MPs are asking for bribes or accepting to be bribed.”
Last Friday, the NRM CEC meeting approved all the party’s 43 candidates to campaign for Eala seats.
From those, the NRM caucus tomorrow will select members. They will be joined by candidates nominated from other political parties and groups and present their candidature to Parliament for campaigns and eventual election.

There are nine seats allotted to Uganda for Eala. The NRM party has six of the nine slots and the three will be shared out by the various political parties and interest groups in Parliament.

The other parties have also nominated their own candidates to contest for the three seats.

Article 50 (1) of the East African Community Treaty provides thus: “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 a accordance with such procedure as the National Assembly of each Partner State may determine.”

The NRM nominees, according to sources privy to the CEC proceedings, will be decided on regional basis- each region having one candidate.

“I voted in the 7th parliament for the first Eala team that went to Arusha and no one gave us anything. I voted in the 8th parliament, you would not expect that or someone asking for something. How can somebody earning over Shs20m be bribed?” Ms Mugyenyi said.

She argued that people are using money to cover up their incompetence, saying Uganda may end up sending a “purchased delegation” to Eala because of money.”

The Parliament’s Director of Communication, Mr Chris Obore, defended the MPs on the claim of demanding money for their vote. He said it is Eala aspirants who run after MPs trying to bribe them.

Mr Obore argued: “First of all, I am aware MPs have been chasing away Eala aspirants who want to bribe them. The problem is either way and I don’t think money will work in these elections.”

The voting for Eala members is scheduled for February 27. The deadline for submitting names of the winners is March 6, which is 90 days before the expiry of the regional assembly’s current tenure.

Former Kibuku District Woman MP Sarah Wenene who is also contesting for one of the Eala seats on the NRM party ticket, said President Museveni told them to desist from paying out money to MPs for votes.

Ms Wenene admitted meeting MPs in groups and one on one, but said she had not given money to any of them and none of them had asked for it either. She refused to reveal her campaign strategy.

National Female Youth MP Adeke Anna Ebaju said: “I know Eala candidates are putting in a lot of money because they move to meet MPs.”

However, she said she had not witnessed any MP receiving or asking for money from Eala aspirants, but added that buying votes may happen within the NRM because of the large number of contestants and polarization.

Nakaseke South MP Lutamaguzi Ssemakula said he had received information about exchange of money for votes.

“There are aspirants who are trying to market themselves by giving out logistics but I have not seen anyone giving cash to MPs. I have attended about five meetings of Eala aspirants who give out logistics like snacks. They ask us to register our names and they say, ‘we shall call you for more meetings,” he said.

Veteran politician who is also contesting for Eala said: “It is dangerous to commercialise politics. It is becoming a game of the rich. We used to campaign and support colleagues but now it’s about dinners, transport refund and mobilisation facilitation.