KAMPALA, UGANDA: Members of Parliament from the Acholi Parliamentary Group have endorsed Eng. Hilary Onek for the speakership position, this website has exclusively been told.
Hillary Onek, the current minister for Relief and Disaster Preparedness is also the MP representing Lamwo County in the eleventh parliament.
According to sources within the group, the decision to endorse Onek for the position was reached at following an impromptu meeting in Gulu where the burial preparations for the fallen Speaker Jacob Oulanyah are being organized.
A source that preferred anonymity on the matter revealed that the group wants the position of the speaker must be retained by an MP from the sub-region where the fallen speaker, Oulanyah hailed from, and among all names forwarded, Onek is preferred, thanks to his seniority in the cabinet.
The group is also reported to have given a go-ahead to MPs Aber Lillian, and Lamwaka Catherine to contest for the deputy speakership.
By press time, Onek was yet to publicly express interest in the position although the source insisted that he is “interested.”
By close of Business Tuesday, 13 MPs from the NRM camp had picked nomination forms from the party’s Electoral Commission offices in Kampala seeking to replace Jacob Oulanyah as Speaker in the 11th Parliament.
They include the incumbent Deputy Speaker Anita Among, Deputy Attorney General Jackson Kafuuzi, Tororo Woman MP Sarah Opendi, Arua Central MP Jackson Atima, Dokolo South County MP Felix Okot, Lwemiyaga County MP Theodre Ssekikubo.
Others are; West Budama South MP Jacob Oboth-Oboth, Kagoma North legislator Alex Kintu Brandon, State minister for Sports Denis Hamson Obua, Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng, Masindi District’s Florence Akiiki, Agago’s John Okot Amos and Bugahya County MP Pius Wakabi Rujumba.
Picking of nomination forms in NRM closed Tuesday ahead of a special legislative election set for March 25
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