Man demands Shs350m from NRM over failure to organise internal organ polls

Daniel Obal says he had his eyes on the election and flew between continents for consultations but that the NRM and its electoral commission failed to do its constitutional duty to organise the polls.

COURT | A man has asked the Hight Court to compel the National Resistance Movement (NRM) to pay him Shs344 million that he says he incurred while running helter-skelter to prepare himself for election as the ruling party's national youth chairman.

Daniel Obal says he had his eyes on the election and flew between continents for consultations but that the NRM and its electoral commission failed to do its constitutional duty to organise the polls.

The special damages, he says, were incurred in accommodation and air tickets, among others.

As well as the Shs344m special damages, Obal, in an exhaustive affidavit filed before the Civil Division of the High Court on March 11, wants the court to order NRM to pay him an unspecified general damages.

Obal has demanded general damages for the "missed opportunities and political stagnation suffered" occasioned by the failure or omission of the party and its electoral commission  to conduct timely elections of special organs in the party.

The other co-accused CEC members, he says, should pay for "continuously and illegally extending their term in office".

Obal has been seeking to replace NRM National You Chairman Nassur Gaddafi, whom he says has not only continued to hold the office illegally but also repeatedly extended his tenure.

"The second defendant [Gaddafi], by virtue of his current age, is disqualified from continuing to hold the position of Chairperson Youth League in the first defendant

[NRM] party," the affidavit drawn by Obal's lawyers, Apricus Advocates and Solicitors, reads in part.

A copy of Gaddafi's passport - attached on the affidavit, shows he was born on August 19, 1986.

The National Youth Council classifies youth as individuals aged between 18 and 30 years and, the revised youth policy used 15-30 years.

"The second defendant [Gaddafi] is now 37 years of age which is way above the internationally recognised age group of the youths and is not qualified to continue

holding the position of Chairperson NRM Youth League," the affidavit says.

The suit also drags in the NRM central executive committee as well as the party's Electoral Commission that is chaired by Tanga Odoi.

"The party's and its electoral commission's omission of failing to conduct elections of the internal structures and special organs violated the plaintiff’s right to participate and be elected to join the NRM Central Executive Committee responsible for providing and exercising political leadership in the country," the affidavit says.

Besides Gaddafi, the suit says members of the CEC who are jointly sued have been drawing monetary and other benefits attached to the positions they hold on the CEC after the expiry of their elective term in 2020.

The suit says Dominic Mafabi (Elder’s League), James Twaheyo (Worker’s League), Mwesigwa Rukari (Entrepreneurs’ League), Jim Muhwezi (Veterans’ League), Gabriel Kato (PWDs’ League), and Lydia Wanyoto (Women’s League) have been doing so contrary to the principles of accountability, democracy and good governance which the NRM party seeks to promote.

"The court should compel the defendants [the CEC members] to return all the monetary emoluments they have received from the 1st Defendant party since the expiry of their elective term in 2020 back to the party," he says.

Many people who bring forward such suits are rubbished as self-seekers after payoff but without spelling out the veracity of the documentary evidence Obal and his lawyers have tabled before the court registrar, it would appear like a solid case.

Obal furnished the court with several copies of air tickets and hotel bookings in different parts of the continent and beyond, claiming these were expended in his effort to mobilise for the election that has never been organised.

He said he incurred fuel, conferencing, catering, transportation, radio announcing and hotel costs to the tune of Shs325 million as he conducted several consultative

meetings between 2020 to 2024 throughout the country in anticipation of the NRM special organs elections.

The other Shs18 million was incurred in "exorbitant flight costs, accommodation as well as feeding costs".

He said he was seeking an order compelling the NRM and its EC team to organise elections for the party’s internal structures and special organs in line with the party’s Constitution with immediate effect.

Representation on the NRM party’s special organs is through elections which are conducted by way of electoral college systems.

The positions for representatives on the party’s special organs are elective and once elected, the chairpersons serve for five years after which their tenure expires awaiting another election to fill the positions.

The accused CEC leaders took offices in 2015 when the party last held elections for its internal organs.

Esther Nakadama, assistant registrar at the Civil Division of the High Court, on March 12, ordered the NRM leaders to file their defence within 15 days.