Gen Muntu watches his authority slip away as Turinawe remains EALA candidate
What you need to know:
- The NRM is said to be comfortable with DP Vice President and current EALA member, Fred Mukasa Mbidde, recently described by President Museveni at a celebration of his party’s anniversary as, “a good DP”
- If that plays out today, this could leave the FDC and independents with one slot with current legislator Susan Nakawuki riding on her experience and the moral card of incumbency.
KAMPALA.
Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) president retired Major General Mugisha Muntu today faces a test of his leadership skills and ability to hold the largest and most influential opposition party’s flock together as secretary for mobilization Ms Ingrid Turinawe features on the ballot for the East African Legislative Assembly election by parliament.
431 MPs are slated to convene at parliament to elect Uganda’s representatives to the regional assembly with 47 candidates eyeing the nine slots available for each of the six East African Community countries.
As the election goes on however, Maj. Gen. Muntu will watch his power as president slip from his fingers after frantic attempts to get one candidate standing on the party’s ticket fell by the wayside.
Gen Muntu had written last week to the clerk of parliament, the returning officer for the election Jane Kibirige, withdrawing Ms Turinawe only to be reminded such powers, under the rules of engagement, lay in the hands of the party’s secretary general, Mr Nandala Mafabi, who alongside his deputy, Harold Kaija, was out of the country in Netherlands.
Mr Mafabi who initially submitted two names (Turinawe and Florence Ibi Ekwau) would however, be reluctant to rescind his decision albeit a working committee of the party, according to spokesman, Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, insisting on one candidate.
In an interview with this newspaper, Muntu reiterated his stand held in previous interviews on NTV’s Fourth Estate on Sunday and NBS’s Morning Breeze show, “FDC has one candidate but those are our internal matters. We shall deal with them as a party.”
Critics of the party have been quick to read into the failure of Gen Muntu to rein in his mobilization chief as the deepening of fault lines that feed into suspected factionalism in the party which is set for a decisive election end of the year for its top leadership.
Muntu has however dismissed that claim and insisted contradictions are natural and the party’s track record of dealing with them and remaining intact in the midst of stormy disagreements is evidence of its maturity.
With the party president publically distancing himself from her candidature, Ms Turinawe who has faced considerable disapproval ratings from MPs for what some claim is her arrogance, will have an uphill task converging an NRM dominated electoral college into her political lane.
As a matter of practice, the NRM allots itself six slots owing to its numerical strength, the three opposition parties (FDC, Uganda People’s Congress, Democratic Party) and independents have three slots to scramble for and partition among themselves.
The NRM is however said, by those in the know of the finer detail and dynamics, to be comfortable with DP Vice President and current EALA member, Fred Mukasa Mbidde, recently described by President Museveni at a celebration of his party’s anniversary as, “a good DP” and UPC’s Chris Opoka from the NRM leaning Jimmy Akena-Betty Amongi faction.
If that plays out today, this could leave the FDC and independents with one slot with current legislator Susan Nakawuki riding on her experience and the moral card of incumbency.
