The camp of Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Jacob Oulanyah, is in buoyant mood as the country prepares for elections of the leader of the legislature.
Oulanyah is in the race with Speaker, Rebeca Kadaga with opposition FDC party spokesperson, Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, the other candidate.
The ruling NRM party where Oulanyah and Kadaga belong, shall have the final say on who will be the next Speaker elections slated for 21st May 2021.
This is because of the numerical advantage of the party in parliament.
The NRM Chairman who is also President-elect, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni will be swearing-in on Wednesday after which, soures add, he will summon the Central Executive Committee (CEC), top decision making organ of the party, to duscuss among other things the critical position of the speaker.
This is because the competition pits two CEC members against each other.
There is increasing spotlight on the organ considering the stance and promises it made on a similar race in 2016 where Kadaga and Oulanyah were also candidates.
Then, Kadaga asked the CEC to allow her complete a ten-year tenure like her predecessor, Edward Ssekandi. She also asked CEC to maintain the precedent, something that could dominate the organ’s.
Before the campaigns for Speaker were called off within the NRM by Museveni, Oulanyah had challenged the CEC to live up to its billing as a top body that can be trusted now and for generations to come.
“In 2016, CEC advised both of us to maintain the status quo, I am now waiting for the party processes to choose and this is the opportunity that CEC has to show that it means what it says,” Oulanyah said in March.
He added, “In order to introduce certainty and predictability of systems of governance, we are going to have to lead by precedent, if no precedent is set and precedents that are set are altered all the time for convenience, then there is a lot of anxiety among the people who believe in the systems.”
“I believe that this is the opportunity that the party has to confirm that the organs work and its predictability, that once they have said something, they mean it so as to collapse the tensions. People will know that if Oulanyah becomes this, he can only do ten years and after that he should leave and another person comes. That will create certainty and stabilise the system,” Oulanyah added to emphasise his point.
It waits to be seen if the CEC will honor its promises made in 2016.
However, Oulanyah supporters are confident that the CEC will consider the fact that Northern Uganda voted massively for Museveni and the party, the first time it has happened for the region to be yellow.
This unprecedented shift, has been credited to the mobilisation skills of Oulanyah.
Prior to the elections, he had also won a seat in the CEC.
His supporters believe, allowing him preside over the next parliament, will encourage other party faithful that actually, it reward those who put in effort to consolidate its strengthen and recruit new members.
