{"id":31952,"date":"2017-01-20T01:20:26","date_gmt":"2017-01-20T01:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/special-interest-groups-to-be-represented-in-eala\/"},"modified":"2017-01-20T01:20:23","modified_gmt":"2017-01-20T01:20:23","slug":"special-interest-groups-to-be-represented-in-eala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/special-interest-groups-to-be-represented-in-eala\/","title":{"rendered":"Special interest groups to be represented in EALA"},"content":{"rendered":"

{The replaced clause provided for such elections to \u201cbe conducted after consultations and consensus by the political parties and other Members of Parliament.\u201d}<\/p>\n

A heated debate heralded a vote in Parliament to scrap the provisions of party consensus in the consideration for elections of members to the East African Legislative Assembly.<\/p>\n

The passed amendment provides for the accommodation of special interest groups in compliance with demands of the Equal Opportunity Commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Speaker shall ensure that the members elected under Rule 12, in as much as is feasible, represent the various political parties represented in the House, shades of opinion, gender and other special interest groups in Uganda,\u201d reads the amended provision.<\/p>\n

The replaced clause provided for such elections to \u201cbe conducted after consultations and consensus by the political parties and other Members of Parliament.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Ruth Nankabirwa, the government chief whip, told Daily Monitor that the scrapping of the consensus gives breathing space to the ruling National Resistance Movement with majority numbers in the House, saving it from court battles over EALA polls.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow all the power lies in the hands of the Speaker, there is no more need for consensus as has been the case\u2026 we are now going to sit with the Speaker and see whether to maintain the status-quo (on numbers) but putting into consideration, the interest groups,\u201d Ms Nankabirwa said.<\/p>\n

The status-quo grants six out of the nine EALA slots to the ruling party, 2 to the Opposition and only one to independents.<\/p>\n

With the independents coming as second to the NRM in the composition of the 10th Parliament, debates remains on whether the Opposition will stage a fight to retain their slots or retain a single slot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot be certain but I guess the independents will not just sit and watch,\u201d said Ms Nankabirwa.<\/p>\n

Shadow Attorney General Wilfred Nuwagaba said that the decision was in respect to the 2012 ruling of the East African Court of Justice where Anita Among (Independent-Bukedea) then an EALA candidate for the Opposition Forum for Democratic Change challenged the aspect of consensus, which consensus was provided for after the election and held no relevance to aggrieved parties<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have virtually transplanted the Article (50) and the treaty into our rules to restate the fact that the members elected must represent the various political parties represented in the House, shades of opinion and interest groups in the country,\u201d Mr Nuwagaba said.<\/p>\n

However, Mr Nuwagaba added that to achieve the new resolution there must be rigorous consensus prior to the elections given the current dynamics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis business of numerical strength, yes can be a factor but it shouldn\u2019t be a major consideration because of course; the ruling party has the majority but if it wants all Ugandans to adopt the spirit of EAC then the business of winner takes it all should not apply,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The 10th Parliament has has MPs from the ruling National Resistance Movement, the Forum for Democratic Change, the Democratic Party and Uganda People\u2019s Congress as well as a sizeable number of Independents.<\/p>\n

There are four interest groups representing Workers, Women, the Youths and People with Disabilities.<\/p>\n

\"President<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{The replaced clause provided for such elections to \u201cbe conducted after consultations and consensus by the political parties and other Members of Parliament.\u201d} A heated debate heralded a vote in Parliament to scrap the provisions of party consensus in the consideration for elections of members to the East African Legislative Assembly. The passed amendment provides […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[2481],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-31952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-daily-monitor"],"bylines":[{"id":2481,"name":"DAILY MONITOR","slug":"daily-monitor","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2481,"name":"DAILY MONITOR","slug":"daily-monitor","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31952\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31952"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=31952"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=31952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}