Tenure of Parliament Commissioners Expires In December, NRM Abandons Caucus Resolution,

Goes For Selection

The National Resistance Movement-NRM party has abandoned the recent resolution of the NRM Parliamentary Caucus retreat in Kyankwanzi to have parliamentary commissioners elected by members of parliament rather than appointed by the top party organ CEC. The government chief whip Denis Hamson Obua says they are going to follow the old order where commissioners are selected by the CEC since the NRM caucus resolution was not approved by the party.

In June this year, the NRM Parliamentary Caucus retreat which sat in Kyankwanzi passed a resolution mandating members of parliament to elect parliamentary backbench commissioners instead of being selected by the party’s Central Executive Committee-CEC. However, as the clock ticks to the middle of the term of the 11^th parliament, the tenure of commissioners of parliament is left with one month to expire and the office of the government chief whip has invited for expression of interest of new aspirants in the old order.

The government Chief Whip Denis Hamson Obua says since the passing of the resolution, the NRM Central Executive Committee has not sat to consider approving amendments to the NRM Parliamentary Caucus Rules of Procedure and any other regulation to provide for Parliamentary Commissioners on NRM ticket to be elected by the NRM Parliamentary Caucus.

Obua says the election of commissioners has a timeline that doesn’t give them the luxury of time to wait for the much-anticipated amendments.

Aspirants have two weeks to express their interests for the three slots available for NRM which will then be subjected to scrutiny by relevant party organs. However, loyalty, regional balance, and gender among other factors will be the basis of the next commissioners.

The call for expression of interest has also been sent to those vying to chair standing committees whose leadership and membership expire in December.

The outgoing backbench parliamentary commissioners on the NRM ticket  include Solomon Silwany (MP Bukooli Central) Esther Afoyochan (DWR Zombo) and Prossy Mbabazi Akampurira (DWR Rubanda)