NRM MPs ask party to facilitate LC1candidates

Kampala.
A section of National Resistance Movement (NRM) Members of Parliament (MPs) want the party to consider financing NRM Local Council 1candidates.
They say some of the prospective runners are asking the MPs for airtime for the campaigns even before the Electoral Commission (EC) flags off the campaigns.
However, no budget was agreed on, Solomon Silwany, the deputy chairperson of the caucus, said on Thursday, June 21.
“We have not agreed on any amount,” Mr Silwany said when the Monitor telephoned him about the agenda of the meeting.
An MP, who asked not to be named, said Richard Todwong, the party’s deputy secretary general, pledged to forward the MPs queries to the concerned officials.
“Members raised that [– facilitation] and [Richard] Todwong said he is going to forward it [to the concerned officials],” the MP said.
Mr Silwany said they resolved that in the meantime, NRM MPs should go and support the party’s candidates.
“Local councils are the backbone of our party. We said we should go and support our candidates to ensure the NRM wins in every village – by telling the voters what the NRM has done,” he said.
The EC last conducted the LC election in 2001.
Whereas it had planned them again in November 21, 2017, private citizens challenged that in court.
The petitioners argued that November 21 would be a school day, and, thus, students who are eligible to vote would not be in position to do so.
This prompted the EC to postpone the election.
The applicants later agreed with the EC to withdraw the petition from court.
Now the commission has said it will conduct the LC 1 elections on July 10.
The Finance ministry earlier this year released Shs6.8 billion to the EC for the polls.
Nomination of prospective LC 1 candidates will take place on July 4 and July 5.
The campaigns will run from July 6 – 9.