EC to announce nomination days

ELECTORAL Commission (EC) chairman Eng. Badru Kiggundu yesterday said he would today announce nomination days for the March 2006 presidential and parliamentary elections.

By Hamis Kaheru

ELECTORAL Commission (EC) chairman Eng. Badru Kiggundu yesterday said he would today announce nomination days for the March 2006 presidential and parliamentary elections.

Kiggundu said he had received many questions about nominations after Parliament passed Consti-tution (Amend-ment) Bill No. 3, which requires civil and public servants to resign three months before nominations.

He said he would use the old law to appoint nomination days because President Yoweri Museveni had not assented to the Bill.

Sections 8(1) of the Presidential Elections Act 2000 and Section 2(1) of the Parliamentary Elections Act 2001, say the Commission shall issue a notice in the Gazette appointing two days, during which the nomination of candidates would take place.

The two Acts are to be amended to provide for multiparty elections, but legal experts said the EC would not be at fault to rely on them because they are the current laws.

Potential candidates have expressed worry that they could miss nominations if the EC did not tell them when they should resign.

But Kiggundu said the hopefuls knew when to resign, “I am informed that a good number has already taken leave or resigned. Some people have taken the Bill on face value,” he said.