NRM CEC to Decide Parliament Speaker Candidate on Friday

Richard Todwong, the Secretary General of the ruling National Resistance Movement, has said the party will officially pronounce itself on its preferred candidate for the Speaker of Parliament after a meeting of the party’s Central Executive Committee scheduled for Friday.

Todwong said the highly anticipated decision will be made during a CEC meeting to be chaired by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, amid growing political maneuvering within the ruling party over the country’s top parliamentary leadership positions.  “We are going to have a Central Executive Committee meeting on Friday this week, and I will be able to communicate to the public after that meeting,” 

Todwong made the remarks on the sidelines of the swearing-in ceremony of Julius Acire Labeja as the new Mayor of Gulu City, where he had been invited as the chief guest. He, however, declined to reveal the names of the prospective candidates for the position of Speaker and Deputy Speaker, insisting that the final decision rests with the CEC.

“So for now, what I can tell you is that there is going to be a meeting at the Central Executive Committee on Friday,” he said. The uncertainty surrounding the ruling party’s preferred candidate follows dramatic developments in the race for Speaker of Parliament after former Speaker Anita Annet Among pulled out of the contest on Monday. Among’s withdrawal comes amid ongoing investigations by security agencies into allegations of illicit enrichment, probes reportedly initiated on the directive of President Museveni.

Earlier, the NRM’s CEC, the ruling party’s highest decision-making organ, of which Among is a member, had endorsed the former Speaker and Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa as unopposed candidates for the Speaker and Deputy Speaker positions, respectively. However, fresh political alignments emerged last week after the Patriotic League of Uganda (PLU), a pressure group associated with the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF), Muhoozi Kainerugaba, endorsed Defence Minister Jacob Oboth-Oboth for the Speaker position.

Through his official X account, Gen. Muhoozi on Tuesday also declared support for Tayebwa as the preferred candidate for the Deputy Speaker position after what many described as a “resumption” of trust. 

The current political environment within the ruling NRM party ahead of the election of the Speaker of Parliament has unsettled some party leaders, many of whom have declined to comment publicly.