Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa on Thursday said that the cooperation agreement signed between the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party and opposition, Democratic Party does not affect the operations of Parliament.
Tayebwa said that the legislators on the DP ticket remain members of the opposition because the cooperation agreement that saw party President General Nobert Mao become Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs has nothing to do with the composition of the House.
“The arrangement between the two parties is not for this House. These are issues beyond this House. Parties can go and make these arrangements in the form of a coalition. Anything that is not registered by the Electoral Commission is not recognized here. This does not affect the operation of the House because DP as a Party has its whip Okot Peter who has not reported anything about the collaboration and has continued to sit on the side of the opposition “, said Tayebwa.
The Deputy Speaker was speaking after Buikwe South legislator Lulume Bayiga presented a statement to the House about the state of affairs in DP.
Uganda’s oldest political party has nine members in Parliament and some of them have been assigned responsibilities in the opposition leadership by the National Unity Platform (NUP), the main party on the left side of the House. There has been a lot of anxiety over the future of the DP legislators after party President General Mao together with Secretary General; Gerald Siranda signed a cooperation agreement with the NRM’s National Chairman, Museveni on July 20.
Mao, as per the cooperation agreement, was appointed Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs to fill a portfolio that has been vacant since the new cabinet was appointed in June last year. The deal which puts DP in a position where its MPs are supposed to cooperate with NRM in any voting in Parliament, has a window for another member from the opposition party to be appointed a State Minister. This has yet to be done.
In his statement, Bayiga who he is said to be mooting the idea of taking over as President General of DP when Mao retired, told Parliament that the various party organs were not party to the arrangements that led to the signing of a cooperation agreement with NRM.
He said that it contravenes the DP constitution seeing its leader sit on the front bench of the ruling party side in Parliament, when his legislators continue to occupy seats on the opposition side.
“The said agreement has caused a countrywide anxiety among members of the Democratic Party, it being interpreted by social media as an extinction of the party, it being swallowed up by the ruling NRM, with an unprecedented absorption of its President in a multiparty dispensation” stated Bayiga.
The legislator who on August 16 together with other prominent members of DP were arrested while trying to access the party headquarters along Balintuma Road in Kampala, added that; “ it further baffles us that and the public , that an agreement that has affected the composition of the committees of Parliament and the sitting arrangement in Parliament, continues to be out of reach from not only the DP Members of Parliament, but also the general membership of the affected party, other than Nobert Mao, the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs”.
He reported to Parliament that efforts by the MPs to get clarification and the original copy of the cooperation agreement from the Secretary General, Siranda have been futile, hence their continued membership of the opposition caucus being on a thin thread.
However, the Deputy Speaker clarified that Parliaments Appointments Committee never vetted Mao in his capacity as leader of DP but as an individual who meets the qualifications to be appointed as a Minister in President Museveni’s cabinet.
“Parliament vetted the Honorable Nobert Mao; we didn’t vet the DP president. And also any gazettement of the DP members is submitted to the Opposition Chief Whip by the DP whip. The Opposition Chief Whip has not reported to the leadership of Parliament any problem with the DP members” added Tayebwa.
The Deputy Speaker, who said that the status of the DP legislators in Parliament is not questionable, insisted that the House will continue voting for political parties based on the list submitted by the Electoral Commission, which include DP.
Last month, President Museveni said after the signing of the agreement at State House, Entebbe that DP has always had good quality and was definitely since and more straightforward.
“Although DP has been in the opposition, they have not been destructive. They criticize but are not destructive” he said, in what was seen as a statement hitting the other opposition parties that have vowed to oust him through civil disobedience.
Despite joining the Cabinet, Mao has always insisted that he remains an opposition member, something that he openly experimented with when he went to Kasese District on August 14 to campaign for the DP candidate, Bernadette Businge in the Busongora South parliamentary by-elections. The NRM candidate Gideon Thembo Mujungu retained his seat after fighting off fierce competition from NUP and Forum for Democratic Change.
Uganda has about 30 registered political parties but only seven have representation in Parliament which is dominated by the NRM. Others are FDC, NUP, DP, Uganda People’s Congress (UPC), Justice Forum (Jeema) and Peoples Progressive Party (PPP).
