By Spy Uganda
The minister for Gender, labour and social development Frank Tumwebaze has urged National Resistance Movement (NRM) members and stalwarts to embrace the Party Constitutional amendment which aims at making voters line up behind candidates during primaries.
The decision was carried by the NRM National Executive Council (NEC) which sat at State House, Entebbe, on Friday.
The motion which was approved by NEC was moved by Party Deputy Secretary General Richard Todwong and seconded by Mulindwa Birimumaso.
The seconders of the motion argued that the amendment will eradicate issues like ballot stuffing, excessive logistical and financial costs, among other things.
When asked about the development and its anticipated effects on Party members, Minister Tumwebaze, who was at Namboole Stadium for the National Resistance Movement (NRM) delegates conference, said that there is absolutely no problem with lining up behind candidates.
He said that ” Every method or every decision human beings take has the positive and negative side, like the President said yesterday; the drugs you take have side effects, what is important is for you is to weigh and know which is bigger.”
He added that “The biggest problem the Party has been having is holding a fully fledged election like the Electoral Commission- have ballot papers, have people’s pictures printed there and because you don’t have that money, there is a lot of a manipulation.People use exercise books, ballot stuffing and vote manipulation is very possible.”
The minister went on to explain that ,”So what do we do under the circumstances yet NRM is a mass party anchored on mass support and democracy? You can leave the work of electing flag bearers to delegates. So what’s wrong with people coming out of their villages to support someone of their choice?”
“It worked with the LCs and it was a success throughout the country. We never saw people killing each other, we never had any petitions. Actually the petitions were not there compared to the last elections of LC1s, which had been conducted by secret ballot. We NRM feel this is a method we need to try and see,” Tumwebaze noted.
Tumwebaze’s words came at a time when thousands of NRM candidates had gathered at Namboole stadium to carry this amendment and other resolutions that were proposed by NEC on Friday.
