The opposition Democratic Part, DP has this morning officially unveiled Hon. Fred Mukasa Mbidde as the sole party candidate in the race for East African Legislative Assembly, EALA.
Last Friday, the DP National Executive Committee convened in a Special Meeting prompted by certain critical developments that demanded an unequivocal response.
The first question was whether the decision taken by the NEC to exempt incumbent MPs from primaries in the 2016-2021 election cycles should apply to the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) election.
This was prompted by a decision from the last NEC meeting which resolved in the affirmative and a unanimous decision to that effect.
As the debate raged some party members wrote applying to be candidates for EALA. Besides the incumbent Hon. Mbidde, three other party members applied.
Accordingly, the additional three applications were presented to the NEC and the NEC taking into account the abilities of the applicants and the interests of the Party decided by vote to reject the three applications. Another vote was taken on Fred Mukasa Mbidde's application and accordingly the NEC overwhelmingly voted to confirm his candidature. “Therefore the DP candidate for EALA will be Fred Mukasa Mbidde.”
A statement from the party chairman as seen by this website said; “We thank those who expressed interest in carrying the Party flag in the EALA elections and assure them that the Party recognizes their unique competencies and will certainly deploy them to represent the Party in other positions and activities.”
