As preparations speed up to usher in the 10th Parliament this starting week, the tension is on the rise again inside the ruling National Resistance Movement Party which is looking to preserve the Deputy Speaker’s seat.
While the Party’s Central Executive Committee and caucus had recently decided to ring fence the position for its current holder Hon Jacob Oulanyah as they did with speakership, this post is being threatened by Kampala Central Member of Parliament Hon Muhammad Nsereko.
The tough talking legislator who was reelected back to the house in February on an independent ticket has refused to stand aside for Hon Oulanyah.
The latter weeks ago grudgingly agreed to keep his current position as deputy speaker although he believed he had a good shot at the main (speaker) post. However, he is now facing stiff competition from Hon Nsereko who has determined to battle him on the ballot, despite the ruling party’s efforts to lure him out of the race.
This afternoon Hon Nsereko angered President Yoweri Museveni and was thrown out of a State House meeting.
The meeting, Nsereko told NTV, was called to among others resolve the issue of deputy speakership once and for all, as the MPs prepare to be sworn in starting Monday May 16th.
In the meeting which was attended by over 350 newly elected and reelected parliamentarians, Museveni raised the issue and asked Hon Nsereko to leave the race for Oulanyah.
The Kampala MP said he went to the meeting because he had to “hunt for the votes wherever they are.”
“I take this race very serious, I have to look for the votes not only from the independents but also NRM and the opposition MPs,” he said.
“When the matter came up, the President called me to the front and asked me to speak out on whether I would agree to step down. I looked him in the face and told him with due respect that I wouldn’t.”
He added, “I told him that the freedom to contest in this race is given to me by the constitution…The independence of Parliament cannot come when we are being forced.”
“Of course he was irritated, he ordered me to leave the room saying that I wasn’t welcome there any way. I laughed him off and left.”
Nsereko said he fancies his chances of trouncing Hon Oulanyah, and that the President knows it.
According to other MPs who attended the meeting, Museveni strongly warned the NRM legislators against voting for Hon Nsereko.
According to Hon John Baptist Nambeshe, the MP representing Bududa, a number of NRM MPs are ready to vote for the independent candidate for deputy speaker.
He told the TV station, “I was really excited to see how Hon Nsereko stood up against the President. It was such a bold step.”