On Thursday May 20, Parliament has successfully finalised the four-day swearing-in ceremony of 529 legislators of the 11th Parliament that came victorious in the January 14th polls.
Now next on the agenda is the election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker before parliament can officially commence its duties.
The elections will be conducted on Monday May 24 when the new MPs attend their first sitting of the 11th Parliament scheduled to take place at Kololo Ceremonial Grounds. At the sitting, the MPs will vote for the Speaker and Deputy Speaker.
The election and swearing-in of the Speaker of the 11th Parliament will be presided over by the Chief Justice, His Lordship Alphonse Owiny-Dollo, who will then hand-over to the Speaker to preside over the election of the Deputy Speaker.
So far the race for Speaker will be amongst incumbent Rebecca Kadaga, her former deputy Jacob Oulanyah both from the ruling NRM party and FDC’s Ssemujju Nganda.
For the position Deputy Speaker, Minister David Bahati, Theodore Ssekikubo, Jacob Oboth Oboth, Anita Among and Thomas Tayebwa all from NRM have expressed interest. Opposition deputy Speaker candidates are Dennis Oguzu, (Maracha County, FDC), Muhammad Nsereko(Kampala Central, Ind) and Yusuf Nsibambi (Mawokota South,Ind).