Richard Todwong, the Secretary General of the ruling National Resistance Movement, has said the party will officially pronounce itself on its preferred candidate for the Speaker of Parliament after a meeting of the party’s Central Executive Committee scheduled for Friday.
Todwong said the highly anticipated decision will be made during a CEC meeting to be chaired by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, amid growing political maneuvering within the ruling party over the country’s top parliamentary leadership positions. “We are going to have a Central Executive Committee meeting on Friday this week, and I will be able to communicate to the public after that meeting,” Todwong said in an interview on Tuesday.
Todwong made the remarks on the sidelines of the swearing-in ceremony of Julius Acire Labeja as the new Mayor of Gulu City, where he had been invited as the chief guest. He, however, declined to reveal the names of the prospective candidates for the position of Speaker and Deputy Speaker, insisting that the final decision rests with the CEC.
“So for now, what I can tell you is that there is going to be a meeting at the Central Executive Committee on Friday,” he said. The uncertainty surrounding the ruling party’s preferred candidate follows dramatic developments in the race for Speaker of Parliament after former Speaker Anita Annet Among pulled out of the contest on Monday. Among’s withdrawal comes amid ongoing investigations by security agencies into allegations of illicit enrichment, probes reportedly initiated on the directive of President Museveni.
Earlier, the NRM’s CEC, the ruling party’s highest decision-making organ, of which Among is a member, had endorsed the former Speaker and Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa as unopposed candidates for the Speaker and Deputy Speaker positions, respectively. However, fresh political alignments emerged last week after the Patriotic League of Uganda (PLU), a pressure group associated with the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF), Muhoozi Kainerugaba, endorsed Defence Minister Jacob Oboth-Oboth for the Speaker position.
Through his official X account, Gen. Muhoozi on Tuesday also declared support for Tayebwa as the preferred candidate for the Deputy Speaker position after what many described as a “resumption” of trust.
The current political environment within the ruling NRM party ahead of the election of the Speaker of Parliament has unsettled some party leaders, many of whom have declined to comment publicly.
In Gulu City, one top party official who spoke to URN on condition of anonymity said internal party democracy had been overtaken by the PLU pressure group aligned to the President’s son. “We can’t say anything for now. You have seen what is happening, and for us ‘small fish,’ if we open up, we may end up being victims. We are also waiting for what the big man will say and decide,” the official said.
However, Arthur Owor, the Managing Director of the Centre for African Research, said on Wednesday that the ongoing contest reflects deepening internal political dynamics within the ruling party, where informal negotiations are increasingly shaping political outcomes. According to Owor, the Speaker contest has shifted from the traditional opposition-versus-government rivalry to an internal struggle within the ruling establishment itself.
“I think the situation is very fluid, and what we are witnessing are the dynamics of politics in a situation where we have a party with a huge majority. Once it enters the party like that, it becomes more complicated, and it is not going to be very easy for us to read things conventionally,” he said.
Owor argued that much of the real political decision-making is increasingly taking place outside formal party structures and public forums. He added that the growing influence of PLU-backed candidates demonstrates the rise of what he described as the “politics of informality” within Uganda’s political landscape. “Most of the negotiations and political maneuvering will happen outside the conventional spaces. It’s no surprise that PLU candidates are taking Centre stage,” Owor observed.
Among the prominent candidates in the race for the Speaker of Parliament position is Norbert Mao, the President General of the Democratic Party (DP) and Member of Parliament for Laroo-Pece Division. Mao has maintained that he remains in the race for Speaker of Parliament ahead of the elections scheduled for May 25, 2026
