NEWS EDITOR
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THE State House has categorically disowned and described as “propaganda of rag” a report circulating on social media that the deputy speaker of parliament Jacob Oulanyah has been endorsed for Speaker.
The senior presidential press secretary, Mr. Don Innocent Wanyama told this News Website that the report should be ignored.
“It is good for journalists to be able to source their own stories, not relying on propaganda of rags,” said Mr. Wanyama.
The team campaigning for Oulanyah on social media has since yesterday circulated the story also published on some online news sites. The story did not quote anyone from the State House on record but instead picked what the Government Chief Whip, Ruth Nankabirwa said on the floor of Parliament on Wednesday.
The tactic is however not new as team Oulanyah rely on propaganda to sell his candidature.
President Yoweri Museveni, as the chairman of the ruling National Resistance Movement party, has a say in the Speaker elections but he has remained quiet and is not expected to openly come out to support a candidate.
The current political situation gives Rebecca Kadaga leverage against Oulanyah in a number of areas.
The first advantage of going to deliver a third term for Kadaga is Gender. The head of executive and his deputy are men, the head of judiciary and his deputy are also men, and automatically meaning a woman should be in charge of Parliament.
President Yoweri Museveni is the head of executive deputized by Edward Ssekandi and the Chief Justice, Alfonse Owiny Dolo is deputized by Richard Buteera.
The powerful Uganda Women Parliamentary Association has already declared their support for Kadaga for Speaker.
The second advantage on Kadaga’s side is regional balance, a critical and inescapable issue in Uganda’s politics.
President Museveni and Justice Owiny Dolo come from Western and Northern respectively making it hard for Oulanyah from North to succeed in becoming Speaker of Parliament. Kadaga’s stiff challenger can only come from Central or Eastern and for now there is none.
