IN THINGS: Mwijukye elected parliamentary commissioner

Buhweju County MP, Francis Mwijukye, has been elected unopposed as commissioner representing the opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) in the Parliamentary Commission. Mwijukye replaces Cecilia Ogwal (UPC, Dokolo district).
Meanwhile, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) backbench commissioners, Peter Ogwang (Usuk County), Nabbanja Robinah (Kakumiro district) and Rwakajara Arinaitwe (Workers) have retained their seats after being elected unopposed.
According to the Parliament Rules of Procedure that were amended on 23 May 2019, backbench commissioners are nominated by the Government and Opposition Chief Whips for election by the whole House.
The Government Chief Whip, Ruth Nankabirwa, nominated the NRM commissioners while the Opposition Chief Whip, Tonny Muhindo Harold, nominated the opposition commissioner during plenary sitting on Friday, 24 May 2019.
“These are the nominated members from the NRM Central Executive Committee, they are only three,” said Ruth Nankabirwa.
Odonga Otto (FDC, Aruu County) however, described the process as fraudulent, saying that he did not get the chance of being nominated. He accused Parliament of going against the amended rules of procedure.
“The mischief we were curing yesterday when we were passing the rules is the very thing that is taking place now. We wanted to avoid the situation where some people seated somewhere nominate a specific person and avoids Parliament from exercising its rights of election,” said Odonga Otto.
The Deputy Speaker, Jacob Oulanyah, however, guided that according to the general rule that govern elections, if at the closure of election, the nominated candidate is one, it is still an election and one will be declared a winner unopposed.
He stated that in the case of the elections of the Parliamentary Commissioners, the rules of procedure were followed.
“There are no more nominations from the government and the opposition and in the absence of this, I declare those members elected unopposed,” said Oulanyah.
The term of office of the four backbench commissioners in the Parliamentary Commission is two and a half years.
The Commission, which is the top decision-making organ of Parliament comprises Speaker of Parliament, Deputy Speaker, Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, Leader of Government Business, Leader of the Opposition and four backbench commissioners.