Allan Kamagara
6 March 2002
Representatives of people with disabilities (PWD's) have said that they are 'dismayed' with the Electoral Commission (EC) and will consider petitioning the Constitutional Court.
They gave a deadline of march 19.
The EC has up to now not fixed dates for the election of people with disabilities as required by the Local Government Act.
"We have been left out, discriminated and we feel disappointed by the EC and the government," Margaret Babadiri, MP (PWD) for the Northern Region said at a press conference yesterday at the National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda (NUDIPU) offices.
"We have asked the electoral commission over and over again to hold the elections, people started campaigning last November, but they said they don't have the money for the elections," Chairman of the Board of directors NUDIPU Alex Ndeezi said at the conference.
He also revealed that NUDIPU mobilised shs 400m to lay preliminary foundation for the elections after the EC said that they had money for 'only and only' final election arrangements but has since failed to fix the date.
" This is unconstitutional, this is the duty of the state to mobilise elections, how can even after this say that the government has no shs350m to finalise the elections," the visibly angry Babadiri said.
LC II business resumes this March 13 minus the PWDs and the youth on board.
Minister of state for disability and elderly affairs Florence Nayiga Sekabira and national representative of PWDs in parliament said that the government is doing everything possible to ensure the elections take place.
"I have talked to Kassuja today and he assured me that the elections will definitely be held," Nayiga said.
But the conference turned firely as Badadiri said 'what miracle is the EC going to perform to hold the elections in the next two weeks,"
"We will fight on and on this is just the beginning, we may be forced to do what we may not have done," Ndeezi said.
Documents from NUDIPU have revealed there are over 53,517 PWDs politicians right from village level to National level with approximately over 2000 members campaigning since last year for the LC 3 elections.
PWDs also comprise over 79,678 executive committee members for PWD's associations in Uganda.
Copyright 2002 Monitor Publications Ltd.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2002 The Monitor. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
