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FDC polls: 30 people pick nomination forms
Left-right: FDC Electoral Commission Secretary Augustine Ojobile, electoral commission chairperson Toterebuka Boniface Bamwenda and deputy party spokesperson John Kikonyogo address the media at Najjanankumbi, Kampala, on September 11, 2023. PHOTO/DAVID LUBOWA
What you need to know:
- The positions will be known next week when those who picked up the nomination forms return them, indicating the positions they are contesting for.
At leasst 30 people have picked nomination forms for the 38 top positions in the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), with barely 24 hours to the deadline.
Addressing journalists at the party headquarters in Najjanankumbi yesterday, Mr Boniface Bamwenda, the chairperson of the party’s electoral commission, said: “As we speak here, the total number of members who have picked up forms has reached 30, and we expect more members to come in the last two days.”
Mr Bamwenda added: “The process shall continue with the nomination of candidates upon the return of a fully filled nomination form, a copy of academic documents, and a receipt of payment of nomination fees, among other requirements.”
The picking of nomination forms for NEC started on September 8 and will close today at 5pm.
Mr Bamwenda said those who picked up the nomination forms are expected to vie for any of the National Executive Committee positions.
The positions will be known next week when those who picked up the nomination forms return them, indicating the positions they are contesting for.
All candidates who will pick forms at the end of the deadline today are expected to return them from September 13 to 16 for all positions that do not sit on the party’s cabinet.
However, the candidates vying for positions in the cabinet (Working Committee), including the party president and the four deputies, chairpersons, secretary-general, treasurer, and their deputies, among others, are expected to return theirs on September 17 and 18.
The FDC Electoral Commission issued a notice last month, calling upon members of the districts, specifically the district chairpersons, general secretaries, secretaries for publicity and mobilisation, and secretaries for women, to participate in the elections of NEC members.
Delegates from 125 out of the 146 districts will attend the forthcoming Delegates Conference scheduled for October 6 to elect the NEC members.
This was after Mr Bamwenda said the party had achieved an 83 percent success rate in conducting the grassroot elections in 125 districts.
The party is set to fill positions for NEC members, including the party president, four deputy presidents, the party national chairperson, and secretary general.
The forthcoming elections come at a time when the party is divided. The crisis within the party, which has persisted for months, deepened last month with the revelation of two upcoming and competing national delegates’ conferences, one called by the national chairperson Mr Wasswa Birigwa and the other by the chairperson of the party’s electoral commission.
While the two conferences have different agendas, both require substantial budgets to accommodate more than 1,700 delegates from various parts of the country.
Mr Birigwa last week indicated that his delegate’s conference will proceed as planned on September 19.
However, the FDC deputy spokesperson, Mr John Kigonyogo, said: “Birigwa is free to conduct celebrations in his garden with party supporters, slaughtering cows and goats, but that will not be considered a delegates’ conference because it is illegal.”
