EC to issue election programe for newly created municipalities

The Electoral Commission will soon issue out a programme for the election of political leaders in the newly created municipalities, Prime Minister Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda has said.

Responding to questions raised by members during the Prime Ministers' question time, Rugunda although did not state exactly when the elections will be done, he said it will be out after the elections of the LC1 and II. The election of LCI & II is scheduled for January2017.

"As I said earlier, the elections for LCI and II will be in January 2017. The Electoral Commission will soon also come up with a programe for the elections in the new macipalities," he said.

He was responding to MP Tonny Ayoo's complaint that since the creation of new municipalities, government has not held elections for members of Parliament, mayors and division mayors.

"Since the creation of the newly created municipalities, it's the technical teams that are doing the work because there are no political leaders. It is now getting to budget time, what is government planning to do. When is government holding the elections in these areas?"  He asked.

In August last year, Government approved the creation of seven municipalities, which were supposed to take effect on July 1, 2016. The municipalities are Ibanda, Njeru, Apac, Nebbi, Bugiri, Sheema, and Kotido.

Supporting the creation, the then Minister of local Government Adolf  Mwesige said there was need for effective administration and organized delivery of services to the people, proper planning and expansion of the areas to ensure orderly development.

He said the Municipalities had the capacity to meet the cost of service delivery and office accommodation, existence of a physical development plan for land use, reliable water sources and reasonable financial base.

Despite pressure from members to reveal when Makerere University would open, Rugunda remained cagy insisting that the President has appointed a special committee to look into the matter and government will present a statement "at the right time."

MP Betty Aol complained that members were receiving a lot of pressure from parents, students and hospitals that use the services of medical interns. "We know there's a committee working on issues of Makerere University, may we know whether the University will be opened at least before Christmas?" she asked.

Earlier Aol and William Nzongh had asked Parliament to debate the matter and put government on pressure to open the University.

 But Deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanyah insisted that the matter will be debate to date (Thursday) when the Minister of Education presents a statement on the matter and the committee on Education also presents a report.

"We have rules we follow when debating issues in parliament. You want the matter to be discussed now basing on what? Let's wait for the statement and the committee report," he said.

Also during the meeting, MPs asked the Prime Minister to explain government's plans to limit the high rate of dying coffee seedlings.

 According to the MPs, farmers have lost a number of coffee seedling yet the tax payers have spent a lot of money procuring the seedlings.

Rugunda said the government has come up with two resolutions; organizing coffee stakeholders and discussing the problems and finding solutions and also recruiting extension workers to advise farmers.

Although a number of ministers were scheduled to present statements in the House explaining a number of issues, only two were presented. The Chief Whip Ruth Nankabirwa requested for more time to enable the ministers prepare.

Some of the statements included the proposal to hire postgraduate medical students from Makerere College of Health Sciences to fill the staffing gaps in Mulago Hospital and explanation on the circumstances under which the dredging licence under section 4 of the rivers act (1907) was issued to mango tree group limited on 4th may 2016 by the then minister of water and environment.

The state minister of health Joyce Moriku requested for more time saying the stakeholders were still conducting consultations on issues of medical interns.

Unlike other students' training, medical students train on the job and most of them were serving in regional hospitals at the time of the University closure.

Moriku however appealed for more time saying the ministry of health and finance were still carrying out consultations.