New constituencies pose extra work to parties

KAMPALA- The creation of new constituencies by Parliament has created additional work on political parties to repeat the process of candidates’ identification.

Parliament last month approved the creation of 47 new constituencies raising the number of directly elected MPs to 497.
Some parties had completed the exercise of issuing nomination forms to their members aspiring for MP seats and had started conducting primaries in districts with more than two members.

With the creation of new constituencies, parties have to redo the exercise.

Addressing journalists yesterday at the Forum for Democratic change (FDC) party headquarters in Najjanankumbi, Kampala, party spokesperson Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda said they have reopened the exercise for nomination forms for MPs in those new constituencies.

According to him, this exercise will run for the next 10 days from yesterday since they have limited time to identify candidates for the posts.

“I would like to invite FDC members who are interested in contesting for Parliament in newly created constituencies to pick and return nomination forms at the headquarters and district offices because we do not have enough time left,” Mr Ssemujju said.

The deadline for picking nomination forms at FDC for MP seats had ended on July 14.

Mr Ssemujju also said the National Executive Committee that sat on Friday last week set August 18 and 19 as the dates on which members intending to contest for President can pick nomination forms.

Meanwhile, Mr Ssemujju said FDC has rejected campaign guidelines released by the Electoral Commission ahead of the 2021 General Election.

The commission last week issued guidelines to be followed by all political parties during their internal and national campaigns and subsequent elections.

According to Mr Ssemujju, maintaining a ban on public rallies, meetings and conferences is not acceptable.