'Not all my cards are facing up': Mao insists on Speakership bid
“One of the issues is Norbert Mao, and not all my cards are facing up, by the way. Many of my cards are facing down, and nobody knows them. How many of you even knew that I was going to contest for Parliament? You didn’t until the last minute,” Mao said.
While addressing a weekly DP press conference at the party's headquarters in Kampala on Tuesday (March 17), Mao said: "We are going to take over that House in the name of the people".
KAMPALA - Uganda's justice minister and Democratic Party (DP) president Norbert Mao has insisted on the battle for the Speaker of the 12th Parliament, saying not all his cards are facing up.
While addressing a weekly DP press conference at the party's headquarters in Kampala on Tuesday (March 17), Mao said: "We are going to take over that House in the name of the people".
“Did you see the last paragraph of that letter that [said] any other issues will be handled on merit?” he asked, referencing the February 20, 2026, letter by President Yoweri Museveni regarding the ruling party’s central executive committee resolution.
The resolution endorsed incumbent Speaker of Parliament Anita Among and her deputy Thomas Tayebwa for a new term.
In the letter, National Resistance Movement (NRM) chairman Museveni said in line with the precedent, the names of the duo would be forwarded to the party’s parliamentary caucus for their adoption as party candidates on the floor of Parliament.
'They don’t know me'
Museveni signed off his letter by saying: “Any issues that arise shall be addressed on merit.”
These remarks gave Mao, the Laroo-Pece Division MP-elect, fresh ammunition for his political opponents.
“One of the issues is Norbert Mao, and not all my cards are facing up, by the way. Many of my cards are facing down, and nobody knows them. How many of you even knew that I was going to contest for Parliament? You didn’t until the last minute,” he said.
The seasoned politician argued that the day he will be sworn in as Speaker of the 12th Parliament is the day Uganda will start understanding who he is.
“I see people talking a lot, including some members of DP; I can only say they don’t know me because you should speak about something you know. I can never open my mouth unless I know something. I left Parliament 20 years ago. Why am I going back after 20 years?"
The race for the coveted seat of Speaker of Parliament has so far attracted four other legislators, including Persis Namuganza (housing state minister), Lydia Wanyoto (Mbale City Woman MP-elect), Alioni Yorke Odria (Aringa South) and Florence Asiimwe Akiiki (Masindi Woman).
All these were elected on the NRM ticket, save for Namuganza, who stood on an independent ticket after crying foul in the ruling party primaries.
However, the main battle over this seat is between Among and Mao, who has so far had a significant impact on the campaign.
Mao, 59, made a political move on July 20, 2022, that surprised many when he signed a working cooperation agreement with the NRM as a way of having greater leverage.
This formal agreement was the first of its kind in Uganda and saw the DP leader, who had been a fierce critic of Museveni, appointed minister the following day.
It also saw NRM use its numerical superiority as a constituency to have DP secretary general Gerald Siranda elected as one of the country’s nine representatives to the Arusha-based East African Legislative Assembly.