By Johnson Kanyesige
Officials from the Electoral Commission (EC) have revealed that the registration of the People’s Front for Freedom (PFF) pressure group into a political party has not been completed as claimed by its promoters.
The Commission spokesperson, Mr Julius Mucunguzi, told Spice FM last evening that there is still an ongoing verification of the signatures from a few districts that were submitted by the promoters of the prospective political party.
“What I have established is that there are a few districts that are pending the final verification, and once those have been verified, then the next step will be the gazetting of the application,” he said.
EC was moved to comment after officials from the PFF told reporters yesterday that the process of registering their political party was done, only awaiting the EC gazette and to issue the certificate of registration.
The head of the steering committee of the promoters of the PFF, Mr Phillip Wafula Oguttu, said the EC informed them that they had finalised the process of registering them as a political party and that they would be gazetted this week.
Mr Oguttu urged the members to be hopeful of the new party and dedicate themselves to elective positions as well as recruit new members. The interim president of PFF, Mr Erias Lukwago, also reaffirmed that the group had finalised the process of registering as a political party.
Mr Lukwago urged the members not to be misinformed about the process, as they are in the final stages of getting a registration certificate. He emphasised that he had been informed by the EC Chairperson, Justice Simon Byabakama, that what was pending was an internal process and hopefully would be in the gazette this week
But Mr Mucunguzi said: “I can confirm that when the application is complete, the next step in the law is publishing the application in the Gazette, and this has to take place within 30 days upon receiving a complete application.
