NRM has no members register

By Taddeo Bwambale               

The National Resistance Movement (NRM) on Monday unveiled its roadmap for the 2016 general elections, setting key dates for internal campaigns, primaries and registration of members.

While launching the roadmap at the NRM’s head offices in Kampala, the party’s secretary general, Kasule Lumumba, maintained that the party does not have a members’ register.

“At the moment, we do not have an NRM register and nobody should claim to have one,” Lumumba told journalists at the launch of the roadmap.

According to the NRM’s roadmap, mass recruitment and registration of members will run from April 24 and May 16 at a village level. Compilation and display of the register will run from May 18 to July 12.

NRM EC chairman Dr. Tanga Odoi (R) addressing the press as Secretary general Justine Lumumba Kasule (L) looks on during the press conference at NRM offices, Plot 10, Kyadondo on April 13, 2015. PHOTO/Latiff Rich

Elections for representatives of party structures from village to district level will be held between July 13 and August 16, the roadmap reveals. The NRM has 5,700 branches across the country.

The party will then hold primaries for flag bearers for parliament, district and local council III elections between August 31 and September 30.

Two weeks ago, the national Electoral Commission released a new road map for the 2016 general elections that showed Ugandans will go to the polls between February 12 and March 12.

Presidential and parliamentary campaigns will run between October 12 and February 15, 2016. Nominations for Presidential candidates will take place on October 5 and 6 while Parliamentary candidates will be nominated on November 9 and 10.

Nomination of candidates for the village youth, persons with disabilities and older persons will run between June 5 and 16, while those for local government council elections are set for October 19-23.

The electoral body is set to start the process of updating the national voters register between April 7 and 30. The updated register will be displayed at all polling stations between June 2 and 22.