Prime
NRM reduces number of MPs to attend plenary sessions
Newly elected Members of Parliament at a retreat at the National Leadership Institute, Kyankwanzi, recently. PHOTO | DAVID LUBOWA
What you need to know:
- The decision comes after Parliament resumed in-person plenary sessions amid rising cost of operations. Parliament has three days of plenary on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
The ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party has started curtailing the number of legislators who will attend plenary sessions.
The decision comes after Parliament resumed in-person plenary sessions amid rising cost of operations. Parliament has three days of plenary on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
Government Chief Whip Thomas Tayebwa said the decision is informed by the chamber’s inability to accommodate all 529 legislators.
Consequently, the ruling NRM party will allow only 100 of its 316 legislators to attend the plenary at any one time.
It is not clear if the same directive will hold sway at the other side of the political divide. Mr John Baptist Nambeshe, the Opposition chief whip, was not available to confirm if the same quota system will come into play.
When the Deputy Speaker, Ms Anita Among, moved plenary back to the chambers after the second coronavirus wave relented, only 100 legislators were cleared to attend sessions physically. The rest gain access to proceedings remotely.
Mr Tayebwa wrote to all the regional whips last Friday, directing them to nominate members to physically attend the sessions.
Different regions were given different quotas depending on the number of NRM legislators they mustered in the 529-strong chamber.
He, however, cautioned the regional whips against favouritism before instructing that “every member…be given an opportunity to attend plenary.”
Mr Tayebwa told Daily Monitor yesterday that the constitutional matters that require three quarters of the quorum have been suspended until a time when all the members will be able to converge.
“In an event that we have issues of constitutional nature, then we have to go back to the tents,” he said.
