KAMPALA – A supporter of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) has asked the High Court to block the elections for Central Executive Committee, the ruling party’s top decision making organ, saying that they are not being fairly conducted.
In his petition filed before the Civil Division of High Court, Mr Moses Banalekaki contends that the CEC elections are set to be conducted without representatives of Special Interest Groups particularly the youth league, something that is against the values of the party
The elections will be conducted on August 18, 2020 but Mr Banalekaki through his lawyers of TAK Advocates says NRM through her top organ, Central Executive Committee passed a resolution to the effect that the party’s Electoral Commission exclusively nominates and conducts elections of candidates only for a few positions and leave out other positions of Special Interest Groups which would make CEC fully constituted.
Banalekaki adds that unless the elections are conducted for all CEC positions, there will not be a legally constituted CEC in as far as the NRM party constitution is concerned.
“The resolution and decision by the respondents to conduct elections only for a section of the CEC membership is not only unreasonable but also biased, selfish, malicious, illegal and discriminative in nature,” reads his petition in part.
Banalekaki says due to the party’s illegal and selfish resolution, he has been disfranchised and denied his right to participate in the NRM party electoral process and this has caused him mental anguish and injury for which he will demand compensation in the main petition.
He adds that he has incurred a lot of expenses in the electoral process basing on the political roadmap issued by NRM in Jan 2019 and for the last one year, he has been moving through the entire country meeting voters, conversing for support.
In the interest of justice, Banalekaki wants the court to block the CEC pending the determination of his petition challenging the legality of the resolution, otherwise, he says he will suffer irreparable damages because he can only compete for that position once due to age limitations.
However, the spokesperson of National Resistance Movement Rogers Mulindwa says the party will be handling elections of the Special Interests groups at a later date which will be communicated.
