Numbers failed to tally in yesterday’s East African Legislative Assembly-EALA election.
Members of Parliament on Thursday voted for the nine Ugandan MPs who will represent the country in the regional body.
According to the results released by the Speaker of Parliament Anita Among who is the returning officer for the EALA elections, 495 MPs out of the total number of 529 eligible voters participated in the election. Among however later added that when the counting ended, 478 MPs had participated in the election.
According to the rules of procedure governing EALA elections, each MP is presented with a ballot paper containing the names of all those contesting for him or her to choose nine of the contestants
NUP has got 57 MPs. When you take the first figure given by the speaker of 495 and you add to it the 57 NUP MPs, you get 552MPs, which is over and above the total number of all MPs in the 11th parliament by 23 MPs.
It should be recalled that both the speaker and deputy speaker are also not allowed to vote.
Speaking to several MPs who were granted anonymity to speak freely, they said there are a number of their colleagues who are even outside the country a case in point is Betty Awol, the former leader of the opposition who is said to be in Israel. So, if this is factored in, it increases the number of illegal voters.
Meanwhile according to the declared results, the six incumbent NRM MPs including Rose Akol who garnered 422 votes, Namara Dennis 415 votes, Kakooza James 405 votes, George Odongo 403 votes, Musamali Pau 401 votes and Mugenyi Mary 367 votes retained their seats.
Also declared are Independent-NRM leaning candidates Veronica Kadogo 383 votes and Amongin Jacquiline 338 votes. The two are former Women members of the 9th and 10th Parliaments representing Buyende and Ngora districts respectively.
Democratic Party’s (DP) Gerald Siranda is the only Opposition candidate who sailed through the election with 233 votes.
His election follows a Cooperation Agreement signed between President Yoweri Museveni and DP President General Norbert Mao. One of the clauses in the agreement was for NRM, which boosts of majority in parliament to support Siranda for EALA.
Elected representatives to EALA from the 7 Member States of Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo – DRC serve a five-year tenure. The current 4th Assembly has 62 members, whose term commenced in 2017.
