Parliament Not Bound By NEC Resolutions

PARLIAMENT is not bound by resolutions of the Movement National Executive Committee (NEC) on the Political Organisations and Parties Bill 2001, the chairman of the sessional committee on legal and parliamentary affairs, Adolf Mwesigye, said yesterday, reports Hamis Kaheru.“We can have the NEC resolution. There is no harm in it but we shall treat the resolution like any other recommendation presented by any group,” he said.Last month, NEC resolved to advise the Parliament not to allow opening of political party offices below the national level. About 70 out of 304 MPs are members of NEC.Mwesigye said, “We have a reasonable degree of independence. We can agree with the NEC resolution or disagree with it, and if we agree with it, that is the way we shall have seen it, not that we have been influenced by NEC.”The bill was presented to Parliament for the second time in November and was subsequently referred to the committee on legal affairs for scrutiny before Parliament could debate it.President Yoweri Museveni rejected the first bill passed by the sixth Parliament in April, 2001 and returned it to the Speaker, Edward Sekandi, for reconsideration.Museveni was unhappy about a provision which allowed political parties to open offices and branches at village level. He said party activities should be restricted to the national level.Mwesigye’s committee is to move country-wide to gather views from the public about the Bill. “For other bills like the Leadership Code, we shall invite experts like the IGG and NGOs involved in fighting corruption but for the POB, everybody should contribute,” he said.Ends