The Member of Parliament for Makindye West, Allan Sewanyana, has suggested that a review of the Local Government (Amendment) Act 2014 whose provisions for lining up behind candidates while voting village council leaders be changed to secret ballot.
He says that the law is impractical since many villages have a sizeable number of voters and that it will be difficult to have grounds to accommodate them and get enough protection hence calling for secret ballot voting.
Sewanyana together with the Mukono Municipality Member of Parliament, Betty Nambooze were giving their submissions recently during the Public Service and Local Government Committee sitting at Parliament.
He asked the committee chaired by the Igara West MP, Rapheal Maghezi, to prevail over the Kampala Minister, Betty Olive Kamya Turomwe, so that a legal
instrument can be worked out and make Kampala part of the local council elections since the local government Amendment bill 2016 which is under scrutiny does not include elections for village councils .
The Electoral commission scheduled village and women council elections for 17th January 2017 though there is still contention over the funds released by government for this exercise.
Meanwhile a section of citizens who also appeared before the public service and local government committee handling the local government Amendment Act 2016, have demanded that the committee moves to different areas to seek public views over this bill.
The chairperson of Muyenga village in Makindye East Constituency, Yasin Omar, Joseph Mubiru a senior citizen from Mpigi, and Ssalongo Segonja Lwanga from Ganda Wakiso district said that the public hearing should be extended to other areas to capture people’s views on this bill arguing that the proposed bill has many lope holes.
Omar told the committee chair Magyezi that they should also cause constitutional amendments to stop the electoral commission from conducting village council elections and that the mandate given to district local councils election exercise the electoral commission is full of irregularities and malpractices.
Omar and a senior citizen Joseph Mubiru proposed that the village councils should be conducted under individual merit and through secret ballot instead of political parties so as to have harmony in the villages.
