As elections for members of the East African Legislative Assembly kick off today, several candidates have so far expressed discontent with the way the process is being conducted with some complaining about the way ballot papers are arranged.
The Tuesday election has 47 candidates who want 9 jobs at EALA among which NRM is fielding 6 representatives, 4 from opposition, and 37 independents want 1 slot in the Arusha-based EALA parliament.
Since the beginning of this week, the media has been awash with letters showing sharp disagreements within FDC in which one from the party president Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu withdrew the candidature of Ingrid Turinawe thus ring-fencing it for Ibi Florence and the other from the Party Secretary General Nathan Nandala Mafabi calling on members of parliament to vote for both FDC candidates.
“Since we are in a multiparty system, we deemed it fit to send two candidates after all we are the second biggest in numbers after the ruling NRM which guarantees us numerical strength over the other parties and independents” Mafabi argued.
Meanwhile, the ruling NRM’s effort to convince independent candidates leaning on their party to step down from the race hit a snag following sharp disagreements on the way the Entebbe statehouse primary elections were held.