Otunnu's group faults EC on Akena presidency

By Umaru Kashaka

THE national Electoral Commission (EC) was wrong in recognising Jimmy Akena as a legitimate president of Uganda People's Congress (UPC), Olara Otunnu's spokesperson, Okello Lucima, has said.

He was reacting to a Sunday Vision story that quoted EC spokesperson, Jotham Taremwa, as saying that Akena was the new UPC president.

Taremwa said the new UPC vice-president Patrick Mwondha recently wrote to them indicating that the party had gotten new leadership under Akena (Lira Municipality MP) after the district conference elections.

"So there is no reason why we shouldn't believe that they (Akena's people) are the ones in power because there is no contrary view. For us we don't know groups, we know UPC as one of the registered political parties in Uganda," Taremwa told New Vision in an interview.

He also said after Mwondha wrote to them and presented a list of new Cabinet, they introduced them to Barclays Bank and Orient Bank Ltd to open accounts with them.

However, Lucima told New Vision on Thursday that the Electoral Commission had no authority to validate or legitimise any political party.

"Under what authority? EC doesn't give legitimacy to any political organization or party. It only takes at face value what parties send to them. Akena’s presidency is illegal and he has no moral authority to preside over UPC functions," Lucima argued.

Akena, who is the late Dr. Milton Obote's son, was endorsed by 67 districts, David Pulkol (former head of external security organization) by 12, while UPC's vice-president Joseph Bbosa only 11 districts.

However, Bossa and the party national chairman, Edward Kakonge, dismissed the vote as marred by irregularities and petitioned the party's electoral body.

This prompted Otunnu, who is UPC's outgoing president, to set up a committee to review the electoral process.

The committee came up with a report recently that recommended, among other things, that Akena vacates the party offices at Uganda House to enable Otunnu's cabinet work on the modalities for the party's delegates’ conference.

However, Akena dismissed the report questioning the legality of the committee that authored it.

He was later approved by a meeting of UPC members he had assembled as a consultative meeting which turned into a delegates’ conference.

Otunnu has already joined Bossa and Kakonge in petitioning court challenging Akena's presidency and his continued occupancy of Uganda House. 

Otunnu wants fresh elections to be conducted by the party's delegates’ conference.