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{
    "id": 721359,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/721359/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 317,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Eng.) Gumbo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 24,
        "legal_name": "Nicholas Gumbo",
        "slug": "nicholas-gumbo"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Speaker. I want to make it quick. I want to thank the Committee for working under very difficult circumstances. But the impression one gets is that because of the time constraints, the Committee did not take a whole look at the entire electoral environment. I would have thought in a report such as this, the Committee would have mentioned, for example, what they are doing to make sure that all the agencies that make sure we have free, fair and safe elections are involved. For example, I noticed that the Committee did not mention anything, for example, the role of Foreign Affairs in ensuring the registration of Diaspora voters. The Committee did not mention what they are doing to make sure that there is adequate preparedness to the national security organs in maintaining law and order before, during and after the elections especially considering the emotiveness of elections. I also noticed that the Committee did not make any comment on the controversial issue of what still appears to be selective issuance of ID cards in our country. The other issue that I did not see the Committee mentioning, I know it is happening and the courts have talked about it, is the level of preparedness of our court system in adjudicating electoral disputes. Members have spoken. We have to agree. I speak here as one of the people who is least bothered by ethnicity. All politics is local. When we go back to our communities, people ask us questions. Recently, when I was at home, an old man who went to Makerere in the 1960s asked me a question. I have to answer him because I am his representative. How come that certain parts of this country do not seem to find their way into these commissions? I am just relaying what he asked me. He asked me how it is possible that the community which gave America its first black president; the community which gave East Africa its first black professor; the community which gave this country its first Vice-President; the community which gave this country its second Prime Minister; the community which gave this country its first black lawyer; the community which gave this country its first black surgeon and most importantly for you, Hon. Kajuju, the community which gave this country its first female elected Member for Parliament, cannot find a representative in three successive electoral commissions? This is my community! We have to speak about it."
}