The interim leadership for the opposition Forum for Democratic Change(FDC) Katonga faction has scoffed at the party’s electoral commission for holding elections at the recently concluded Delegate’s conference.
On Friday, October October 6th, Toterebuka Bamwenda the EC chairman and his deputy Mukalazi Kibuuka conducted elections for National Executive Committee (NEC) where over 1000 delegates voted their leaders to various positions.
These delegates from different categories, including District Chairpersons, General Secretaries, Secretaries for Publicity and Mobilization, Women League Chairpersons, and Youth Secretaries. At the constituency level, Chairpersons and General Secretaries all voted.
Addressing journalists on Tuesday, the party’s controversial spokesperson Ssemujju Nganda state that the elections were illegal and violated the party’s constitution.
He explained that articles 23 and 28, clearly stipulates that the FDC (NEC) should be elected through the National Delegates Conference, which is to be convened and chaired by the party Chairman. However, the October 6th meeting, which marked an unprecedented event in the 18-year history of FDC, is believed to have contravened these constitutional provisions, rendering it illegal within the party’s framework.
“This meeting, the first of its kind in the 18 years of FDC, was illegal under the party Constitution.” he said
He stated that a civil suit was filed on September 29th, 2023, challenging the legality of the October 6th meeting but the case has not yet been heard due to the usual time-consuming legal process.
Ssemujju accused the High Court Judge in the matter Musa Ssekaana of frustrating the process by declining to grant the order, citing what he deemed a late filing.
“Because of the lengthy process involved in hearing and determining cases such as this one, we also filed two applications, one for an interim injunction and another for temporary order. What these two applications were meant to serve was to temporarily stop the Bamwenda/Mukalazi meeting until its legality is determined. Unfortunately Judge Musa Ssekaana declined to grant the order to temporarily halt the processes pending determination of the case on such flimsy ground that we filed late which to him was bad faith.”
Ssemujju says the matter is still in court and its too early to conclude the outcome
“FDC delegates who instructed us to take this matter to Court on September 19th that the process to have this matter determined has not been concluded. In fact it has just began.”
However, leaders within the FDC, the recently re-elected Party Secretary General Nathan Nandala Mafabi and President Patrick Oboi Amuriat, have asserted that the legality of their October 6th meeting and the subsequent elections has been affirmed by the court.
Comments are closed.