By Jane Nafula
The Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) party Secretary General, Ms Alice Alaso, has tasked the Electoral Commission to expedite the process of displaying the roadmap for the Local Council elections so that women can be encouraged to engage in the pending election process.
Ms Alaso said: “We are concerned already. If the Electoral Commission had given us a roadmap for elections, our voices would be going around to say if a woman lines behind a different person, please don’t beat them. Unfortunately, the roadmap is not coming.” She made the remarks during the handover of the Interparty Women Platform (IWOP) leadership from the ANT party to the Democratic Party (DP) at a ceremony held at ANT’s offices in Kampala last week.
IWOP, which comprises ten registered political parties, aims at building an effective platform for women to influence the political culture and promote a holistic well-being of society through rotational leadership. The parties include the National Resistance Movement, DP, ANT, Uganda People’s Congress, Ecological Party of Uganda, Forum for Democratic Change Justice Forum, Peoples’ Progressive Party, Uganda Federal Alli- ance and Conservative Party.
The EC recently disowned a programme that was said to be the approved schedule for the election of LC 1, LC II and women councils. Efforts to get a comment from Electoral Commission’s spokesperson, Mr Paul Bukenya, were futile press time.
The term of office for Local Council I and II expired on July 10. However, the occupants of these offices were given an extension of six months as the government hunts for resources to facilitate the exercise. The Prime Minister, Ms Robinah Nabbanja recently said the government needs Shs59 billion for the elections.
