CEC at crossroads over Speaker vote

Members of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) Central Executive Committee (CEC) are due for a crunch meeting tomorrow to pick the ruling party’s flag bearers for Speaker and Deputy Speaker positions in the 11th Parliament.

The meeting to be held at State House Entebbe two days before the elections on Monday comes on the backdrop of rancorous campaigns pitting Kamuli Woman MP Rebecca Kadaga, a two-time Speaker, and Omoro MP Jacob Oulanyah, also a two-time deputy Speaker.

Their tenures lapsed with the dissolution of the 10th Parliament more than a week ago.

Other legislators who have expressed interest to run for Speaker of the 11th Parliament include Kira Municipality’s Ibrahim Ssemujju, who was the Opposition chief whip in the 10th Parliament, DP’s Richard Ssebamala (Buukoto Central) and Rakai Woman MP Juliet Kinyamatama.

The latter was yesterday turned away when she went to pick an expression of interest form at NRM headquarters on Plot 10 Kyadondo Road in Kampala, with officials saying her name was missing in the party register.

Whatever decisions that members of CEC, which President Museveni chairs in his capacity as NRM national chairman, make tomorrow, while not conclusive, will, however, be important because it is likely to influence the choice of the ruling party’s caucus that sits a day later on Sunday.

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The caucus is not obliged to endorse CEC’s recommendation, although it has done so in previous Speaker and deputy Speaker races in past Parliaments.

The CEC meeting will also be keenly watched to examine whether members will maintain or reverse their reported 2016 position to support Mr Oulanyah for Speaker of the 11th Parliament after Ms Kadaga served two terms to match that of her predecessor Edward Ssekandi, elevated in 2011 to vice president.

Important to note is that the elections are taking place before the Cabinet reshuffle and Mr Museveni may dangle the slots to whoever loses the race to cushion their fall from the Parliament leadership seat.

Whoever wins the Monday race may have an implication on who takes the deputy seat depending on the regional and gender balance.

That so-called position has turned a political tinderbox after Ms Kadaga, who reportedly benefited from the proposal that in 2016 eliminated Mr Oulanyah from the Speaker race, changed course to brand as “undemocratic” the CEC’s practice of ring-fencing an individual for head of the Legislature.

In would be “undemocratic for CEC to sit five years early and say five years later so and so will be our Speaker,” Ms Kadaga said on Wednesday in answer to questions from journalists at NRM headquarters where she went to pick a form to formally express interest to seek re-election.

She also said they were not cattle to be selected exclusively by CEC members and questioned why a similar criterion is not applied while picking NRM’s flag bearer for President.

Insiders familiar with the process say Ms Kadaga may have aimed to pre-empt tomorrow’s decision, but they argued that her combative tone suggests she could elect not to be bound by CEC decision if it will not favour her, leaving open the possibility any aggrieved individual could still run for Speaker without the ruling party’s backing.

As the Kamuli Woman MP on Wednesday aimed at CEC, Mr Oulanyah handed over the deputy Speaker office, saying he would not reclaim it and his exit marks the start of a new journey.

It remains open whether that new pathway leads him to substantively head Parliament or end up a backbencher, a seat for which he yesterday said he was prepared because the voters in Omoro elected him to principally represent them as their MP.

“Anything else is a bonus,” he said, arguing that the August House requires a new direction over the next five years whether or not he is the Speaker.

When another journalist inquired why he had been silent in his campaigns compared to Ms Kadaga, Mr Oulanyah said there are things that must change as soon as possible.

“We must restore public confidence in this institution. This is the only Parliament [where] wherever parliamentarians are seen, [they] are jeered at and it is because of the way we are doing business. This must change,” he said.

He added: “There must be a process of making this happen and I want to be part of that, making sure that some changes are made in Parliament: restoration of confidence. … focusing the House on debating issues of national interest.”