EC wrong to stop Mao from nomination, says Amama Mbabazi

Independent presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi addressing a rally recently. File photo 

By Isaac Imaka & Robert Muhereza
Posted 


Wednesday, December 16  

2015 at 

09:45

Kabale. He was silent on the question of how he is coping with the fact that Mr Nobert Mao, one of his team’s strategists in the ongoing presidential campaigns may not vote for him due to lack of a national identity card.

However, at a press conference in Kabale Town on Sunday, Mr Amama Mbabazi, was quick to fault the Electoral Commission for blocking Mr Mao from getting nominated to contest for Gulu municipality MP seat, saying the electoral body was unfair and its action runs counter to known practice.
“It’s unfortunate that the EC didn’t register Mr Mao because he was ill and was not in a condition to register at the time. We know people who have been registered in their absence and he is known everywhere.”

“He is the president general of the Democratic Party and former Gulu District chairman. He is a public figure. For someone to say Mr Mao could not register because he was, I think goes counter to the practice that we know and should have been handled differently,” he said.
This was the first time Mr Mbabazi was addressing Mr Mao’s rejection ever since the EC made the unprecedented decision.
Mr Mbabazi has been asking his supporters who converge for his rallies, whether they have national IDs and if their names appear on the voters register.

He says he was prompted to do so after getting reports that many people may not vote because they have either not received their IDs or were not registered yet they have voted before.
“We are trying to get the exact figures and see the implications and figure out what game is being played,” Mr Mbabazi said. “I don’t know if the EC is ready to handle the elections but they had better be.”

The EC has explained why Mr Mao was not nominated, saying it was because he couldn’t prove he was Ugandan.
Two days ago, the EC officials met with him to resolve the impasse and promised to give him their final position soon.
At the press conference, Mr Mbabazi also explained why in the entire Kigezi sub-region, it is only Kanungu without a major tarmacked road, saying he “believed” he was a national leader who was planning for the whole country and not just the area he comes from.

Mr Mbabazi, who used to fly to Kanungu while serving as prime minister, said that as a nationalist, he had taken the line that if we have a programme of constructing roads, it should be followed and so it was not reasonable of him to say that his home area should be number one.
“If they decided that Kisoro is first, would it be reasonable of me to say no work on Kanungu first? So long as Kanungu’s position was known and everyone knew then there would be a place for Kanungu. That was the position I had taken all along.”

Mbabazi on the Ruto question
Mr Mbabazi also faulted Kenya’s deputy president William Ruto for what he called “partisan involvement in the political affairs of a sovereign state”.
The Go Forward candidate, who has himself been frequenting London and America meeting some foreign political actors, said Mr Ruto is ignorant of the salient political issues in the country and was wrong to campaign for the incumbent. “He doesn’t know enough about our situation. On what basis does he say that the incumbent performed well. There are issues in Uganda which clearly are a matter of attention of the debate we are having.

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