Parliament has granted the Mityana County South MP, Hon. Richard Lumu, to introduce a Private Member’s Bill entitled, “The Administration of Parliament Amendment Bill, 2024”
The Bill among others, seeks to revise the selection of the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in Parliament.
The LoP, who is accorded the status of a cabinet minister is elected by the party in opposition to the Government having the greatest numerical strength in Parliament according to the Administration of Parliament Act.
During the plenary sitting on Thursday, 29 August 2024 at the Kaunda Grounds in Gulu City, Lumu stated that the manner of election of the LoP as it stands, excludes other opposition political parties represented in Parliament and yet the LoP superintends over all of them and even selects the shadow cabinet from among them.
He said the same also applied to the Government Chief Whip cognisant of the need to entrench democratic principles in electing the LoP and Chief Opposition Whip as representatives of the Opposition in Parliament.
Although there are five Opposition parties with members of Parliament in the House, which include the National Unity Platform (NUP); Forum for Democratic Change (FDC); Uganda People’s Congress (UPC); Democratic Party (DP) and Peoples Progressive Party (PPP), only the National Unity Platform chooses the LoP and the Chief Opposition Whip. This was the same case when the FDC had the majority of MPs in the opposition.
Lumu, a member of DP, said that if the President and Speaker are elected, there is no reason why the members of the opposition in Parliament do not elect their own Leader of the Opposition.
However, Chua West County MP, Hon. Okin P.P. Ojara, preached caution alleging that and motion presented by Lumu is dangerous.
“There are issues embedded as to why the current arrangement in Parliament is working appropriately, because when you look at the entire structure of Parliament, we have not heard a situation where the ruling Government elects the Chief Whip or even the ministers being elected,” he said.
Hon. Joel Ssenyonyi, the current LoP, is the seventh to hold office following the return to multiparty dispensation in 2005. The others have been Hon. Mathias Mpuuga; Hon. Betty Aol; Hon. Winnie Kiiza; Hon. Nathan Nandala-Mafabi; Hon. Phillip Wafula Oguttu and Hon. Morris Ogenga Latigo
Speaker Anita Among guided that the clause on the selection of the LoP is not entrenched and a member cannot be denied access for leave to introduce the Bill.
Following guidance from the Deputy Attorney General, Hon. Jackson Kafuuzi, that there is was no legal challenge with the motion, Hon. Lumu was granted leave to introduce the Bill.