The Parliamentary Committee appointed to vet the qualifications of the 28 nominated members for the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) has found that all the candidates have met the required qualifications and can go ahead and campaign.

The committee represented by members of different parties represented in Parliament was chaired by Mbarara City South MP Mwine Mpaka.

In a report to Parliament, Mwine said during the verification process, the committee observed that several aspirants had issues with the arrangement of their national identity cards, academic documents and nomination papers tendered, but that could not lead to disqualification. Some had additional names or additional letters on their names.

He said that based on a number of court rulings, the committee found no misdeeds on the part of the aspirants who had issues with the appearance of their names on their credentials.

The committee wanted to establish that the person contesting is a citizen of that partner state, is qualified to be elected a member of the national assembly of that partner state under its Constitution, not holding office as a minister, and is not an officer in the service of the Community and has experience or interest in consolidating and furthering the aims and the objectives of the Community.

The Parliament of Uganda is scheduled to elect nine persons to represent Uganda in the East African Legislative Assembly for the period 2O22 - 2027 on September 29, 2022.

Although the candidates are nominated by their parties, they are elected by MPs in Parliament.

Uganda’s current nine representatives include; Rose Akol Okullu, Paul Mwasa Musamali, George Stephen Odongo, James Kakooza, Mary Mugyenyi, and Dennis Namara who are all from NRM.

Others include Chris Opoka (Uganda People Congress) Fred Mukasa Mbidde (Democratic Party) and Suzan Nakawuki (Independent).

The term for the current members ends in December this year. The electoral process for the fifth Assembly of EALA commenced on September 17, 2022, and will last for at least 90 days before December 17, 2022.

EALA is the legislative organ of the East African Community and consists of members elected from outside the national Parliaments of the partner states. The regional Parliament was established under Article 9 of the EAC Constitution.

Within the opposition, Siranda, the deputy secretary general of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Harold Kaija, and UPC’s Fred Ebil, among others, are already canvassing for support within Parliament.