By Max Patrick Ocaido
Forum for Democratic Change Spokesperson and Kira Municipality MP, Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda has said that the opposition in Uganda is at the mercy of the ruling NRM party because of its small number.
Ssemujju, also Opposition Whip at Parliament said that the biggest problem facing Ugandan opposition is the small numbers especially in Parliament which makes it difficult for them to front their interests.
“The biggest challenge with opposition in Uganda is that the numbers are small in parliament. This parliament comprises of about 456 MPs and the opposition is not even a quarter, so some times the legitimate business you have to push through parliament entirely depends on the good will of the NRM,” Ssemujju said.
Ssemujju was on Wednesday addressing the media through a live tweet chat highlighting the contribution of the opposition in legislation during the 3rd session of the 10th Parliament that ended in June.
“These NRM MPs are so many and they are not only whipped by their whips in parliament but also the chairperson of their party who is also the head of the state. So it becomes difficult for opposition generated business to go through especially if you do not have many NRMs on your side,” he said.
Ssemujju admired the politics in Ghana where the number of the opposition in Parliament favorably competes with those in the ruling government. In the early 2000s, there was a moment where the margin between those in government and opposition was just one MP.
“It is a different case here [in Uganda], the NRM will sometimes gang up and say this particular business will not pass,” he said, adding that in a bid to solve this, there is need for parties to democratize so as to reduce on the number of Independents in Parliament.
Currently, there are more Independent MP than opposition MPS in the 10th parliament. Ssemujju however, lauded a section of NRM MPs who have collectively sided with them [opposition] to influence on the debate on crucial matters in the House especially on matters that are not partisan.
Meanwhile, Ssemujju has said that the Opposition will this Friday meet Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga to file a notice where they will be tabling all the necessary bills that government has not yet tabled and among them includes; the Electoral Law Reforms.
“Government was supposed to have honoured the ruling of the Supreme Court in the Mbabazi Vs Museveni case, but they did not. They [government] have kept promising to bring electoral reforms and they have not. So we filed a notice through the shadow attorney general that we shall be tabling all the necessary bills and we are meeting the speaker this Friday. We hope that if the NRM does not present these bills at the resumption of parliament next week, the speaker will allow us to present these bills,” Ssemujju said.
