I'm not desperate for MP seat - Mao

THE Democratic Party (DP) President Norbert Mao has said that he is not bothered about being re-elected Gulu Municipality MP but acted due to public demand.

"I was MP for ten years so am not dying to go back as some of my colleagues are trying to portray. I now want to be president of Uganda but when am battling the Electoral Commission it's a human rights matter and not about the position," Mao explained at a news conference in Kampala.

He said that some of his colleagues in the opposition are using his current failed nomination to attack him because they think he bounced back in a bid to become leader of opposition.

Mao said "I don't settle for less so they should not be worried. It seems people are satisfied with being leader of opposition but I want to be leader of government business so going back to parliament is a bid of service to the people of Gulu but not a do or die factor."

Mao also alleged that the Electoral Commission (EC) acted in bad faith when they rejected his nomination as a candidate for Gulu Municipality MP.

"The EC had no reason to deny me the right to vote and be voted for because I am a citizen of Uganda. Their actions were biased, prejudicial and discriminatory in nature and for that reason we shall go against them until we receive justice, not for Mao but the many Ugandans without a platform being treated like me," Mao raged.

Mao's nomination was on Wednesday last week rejected by the Gulu district registrar because he didn't have a national identity card and his name was missing on the voters' register as well.

Mao claimed that while he made several attempts to have his details on the voters' register in vain, there is information that Uganda People's Defense Force (UPDF) officers from Somalia and South Sudan that missed the exercise like him are being registered in Gulu at a place called Palalo.

He said, "They are biased and discriminative because in my efforts to get registered, I used all avenues including writing to President Yoweri Museveni but I didn't get any help yet UPDF and some other people I know of are being registered at the last minute which means my rejection is deliberate."

The UPDF spokesman Paddy Ankunda said that, "I am not aware of any registration of officers in Gulu but even if it were true, these men and women have been away on duty so may be internal affairs considered them because they have a right."

Besides bias, Mao also argues that the EC has deliberately refused to respond to the appeal against his rejection as a delaying tactic to allow events override his case.

However, the commission spokesperson Jotham Taremwa On Tuesday told New Vision that, "we have invited Mao for a meeting on Thursday to discuss his complaint so it's not necessary for him to run to the media."   

Mao who appealed to fellow opposition members to join him in the struggle for justice also confirmed by press time that his legal team had briefed him about the invitation for a meeting with the EC.

"Now is the right time for all those agitating for free and fair elections to join in the struggle because if we don't capitalize this opportunity to clear the issue, then I see Museveni bouncing back for the next five years," he added.

Mao was Gulu Municipality MP from 1996-2006, Gulu district chairman 2006-2011 and a presidential candidate in the 2011 elections.

His lawyers led by human rights activist Nicholas Opio also said that the EC acted outside the law when they degazetted the old register where Mao's name appears.

"EC has no mandate to retire a voter's register as per the law but they can compile, maintain and update. We have seen a copy of that gazette but even the sections of the Electoral Commissions Act cited do not compel them to degazette," Opio said.

In a press statement over the weekend, EC chairman Badru Kiggundu said that during the update exercise, "all persons who registered for purposes of elections prior to 2011 and subsequent by-elections but didn't take part in the mass enrollment for issuance of a national identification card were required to register afresh for voting in the 2016 general elections."

On 1st April 2015, the commission announced that effective 31st March 2015, the 2011 National Voters' Register as updated had been retired and degazetted in General Notice No. 257 of 2015 in The Uganda Gazette.