2016 polls: NRM caucus discusses party's register

 

Earlier, the  NRM deputy caucus chairman David Bahati told New Vision that the members would be discussing the content of Rosemary Sseninde’s report.

 

The report contains various recommendations on the necessary undertakings to avoid problems which were encountered in the 2010 NRM primaries.

 

Asked for the key recommendations they will be discussing, Bahati said, “They are many ranging from early registration of NRM members to update the NRM register and strengthening the NRM Electoral Commission.”

 

One of the recommendations in Sseninde’s report is that the NRM secretary general position should be held by someone who is not a minister to give him or her more time to concentrate on building party structures.

 

In previous caucus meeting that convened about two week ago, there was a proposal for creating a committee to be in charge of updating the party’s register.

 

This was however viewed some analysts as a ploy to nibble away some of the powers of the secretary general.

 

This is perhaps the reason why Mbabazi was reportedly opposed to that proposal in the last caucus meeting.

 

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Crowds of NRM supporters welcomed President Museveni in Entebbe from New York on Saturday. PHOTO/Abu Mwesigwa

 

Sseninde’s report further calls for the decentralization of the nomination of primary contenders to reduce the congestion at the NRM secretariat and the expense incurred as a result.

 

The report maintained the need to conduct primaries under universal suffrage since manipulation is reduced in that method. 

 

The committee headed by Sseninde observed once adopted, their recommendations would restore confidence among NRM candidates who had decided not to go for the primaries over irregularities.

 

The recommendation was based on her committee’s working tours to Namibia, Ghana and Tanzania, where they compared notes with the ruling parties.

 

The previous meeting also discussed Evelyn Anite’s report on the results from the consultations on the Kyankwanzi resolutions which include President Yoweri Museveni’s sole candidature.

 

Some members raised concern that prominent party leaders like Amama Mbabazi and Prof. Gilbert Balibaseka Bukenya had not consulted their constituencies on the issue of sole candidature.

 

Political analysts Like Makerere University’s Aaron Mukwaya predict that the politics surrounding NRM’s register and secretariat will generate more controversies and conflicts as each camp prepares itself to have an edge over the other in the party’s delegates conference which will precede the 2016 general elections.

 

It is highly expected that the NRM secretary general Amama Mbabazi and former Vice President Prof. Gilbert Balibaseka Bukenya will contest with President Museveni in the race for NRM presidential flag bearer for the 2016 elections.