Ruling NRM party to amend own constitution over independents
The Ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party is considering amending their constitution ahead of the 2021 general elections.
The move, according to the party spokesperson Rogers Mulindwa, is aimed at deterring party members from aspiring as independent candidates in respective electoral positions.
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Mulindwa says that it has become a habit for party members to run as independents after losing elections, as evidence from the history of chaos that marred the NRM primary elections in 2011 and 2016.
The party now claims that changing the constitution to lock out independent candidates will minimise costs, chaos and the rise of party leaning independent candidates due to fall outs.
“When someone loses primaries, contests as independent and walks away with some of our support. It is in our interests to lock out these people, every body must belong somewhere, once you lose, you shouldn’t contest,” Mulindwa said.
He reiterated that the amendment proposal will be subjected to all party structures before the process is affected for the national delegates conference in November this year.
“The proposal went to CEC (Central executive Committee), they will some time later come to the national conference in November,” he added.
The NRM is not the only party that has found a thorn in independent candidates, Democratic Party president, Norbert Mao has time and again complained about who benefit from ‘branding and goodwill of the party and then turn around against it.’
‘Some Independents have become extremely disruptive. This is a legitimate concern. And if you have a problem you find a solution,” Mao is quoted in an interview with The Independent.
To deal with the issue of independents, political parties with support of the Electoral Commission drafted the Regulation of Independent Candidates Bill, 2019 which would later be adopted during a National Consultative Forum (NCF) in April this year.
The parties argued that a person is only eligible to stand as an independent candidate for election if they are not a member of a registered political party. In which, if members of a particular party, they must declare not to be of that party several moments before aspiring for any position.
In the 2016 elections, independent candidates accused NRM of pushing them in that position because they held unfair and non-transparent elections.
These said that they would not hesitate to stand as independent candidates should the party fail to organise free and fair polls.
Numbers
According to party composition in Parliament, NRM has the biggest number of legislators (293), followed by independent candidates (66).
