Burundi and South Sudan are today facing off in the speaker race for the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA).
The election comes a day after the members of the 5th assembly from 7 member states took oath on Monday.
The term of the outgoing speaker, Rwanda’s Martin Ngoga came to an end this month.
Uganda’s EALA representative James Kakooza tells KFM that four candidates have expressed interest in the race with three candidates from South Sudan and one candidate from Burundi.
A total of 63 EALA Members of parliament will be casting their votes this morning in a secret ballot.
Eligible candidates for the speaker position are those countries that have not had a chance to chair.
This explains why Burundi and South Sudan are competing in today’s poll and DRC was not able since it is still new to the bloc, having been admitted to join the community this year.
Both Burundi and Rwanda entered the EAC at the same time in 2007.
In 2017, Burundi and Rwanda competed for the Speaker’s post at the regional assembly but the outgoing Speaker, Martin Ngoga won the race.
Burundi then filed a case at the East African Court of Justice saying that the elections did not meet the quorum as members from Burundi and Tanzania boycotted the election.
