Persons With Disabilities -PWDs have asked government for special consideration while voting for members to represent Uganda in the East African Legislative Assembly – EALA.
Organized under the National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda (NUDIPU), the PWDs say there is no inclusiveness in representation as Uganda prepares to conduct EALA elections on September 29th, 2022.
EALA is the Legislative Organ of East African Community established under article 9 of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community, 1999. The Treaty provides that each member shall elect nine members (who are not members of their respective Parliaments) to represent them in EALA. In Uganda, six positions are ring fenced for the ruling National Resistance Movement -NRM party, two for opposition Political Parties and one position for an independent candidate.
On Wednesday during a presser at the NUDIPU offices in Bukoto, the body’s Acting Chief Executive Officer, John Chris Ninsiima said that Parliament should consider representation of at least one PWD among the nine members to be elected each time such that they fulfill the diversity envisioned under 50 of the treaty.
Ninsiima quoted Article 50, which also provides that elected members should represent as much as it is feasible, the various political parties in Parliaments of member states, shades of opinion, gender and other special interest groups in that country.
According to the 2014 Uganda Bureau of Statistics – UBOS Census Report, PWDs constitute 12.4 percent of the general population. The Uganda functional difficulty survey report of 2016 puts PWDs at 16.5 percent which Ninsiima says is a big number that needs to be considered in decision making of the national and regional level.
He says Parliament should support and ensure that there is inclusion and participation of PWDs in the EALA election process as a special interest group and that it should also reaffirm Uganda’s commitment to mainstream disability concerns at both national and regional levels.
“To ensure inclusion of PWDs in mainstream community activities, especially in the field of civic participation, the East African Community Disability policy, 2012 enjoins member states to ensure that they do effectively and fully participate in political life,” added Baguma
Ninsiima says that this is the right time to express the government’s progress in promoting inclusiveness by ensuring representation of PWDs at the regional level adding that this will not only promote diversity but also go a long way in uniting all persons with disabilities and other special interest groups in the East African Community and promote their active participation in affairs of the Community with specific emphasis on the unique needs of such special interest groups.
In July, the NRM endorsed the incumbent EALA members as their representatives in the next election. The six members are; Stephen George Odongo, Rose Akol, James Kakooza, Mary Mugyenyi, Paul Musamali Mwasa and Denis Namara, .
The Forum for Democratic Change-FDC has fronted its Deputy Secretary General Harold Kaija, Justice Forum-JEEMA nominated its General Secretary Muhammad Kateregga, the Uganda People’s Congress-UPC shall be represented in the elections also by its Secretary General Fred Ebil, while the Democratic Party-DP nominated its Secretary General Gerald Blacks Siranda to represent them. The National Unity Platform-NUP, which has the majority Members of Parliament from the opposition declined to front any candidates for EALA saying they do not expect fairness.
Of the two positions ring fenced for Opposition candidates, DPs Gerald Siranda is expected to sail through since his party entered a Cooperation Agreement with the NRM and agreed that he is elected for EALA.
Elections for the nine members from Uganda are conducted in an NRM dominated Parliament, and hence the party determines who is elected.
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