The Inter-party Cooperation (IPC) is a political platform only meant to benefit the Forum for Democratic Change, the Democratic Party president, Mr Norbert Mao, has said. Addressing a rally in Kampala on Saturday, Mr Mao said joining the IPC is a diversionary strategy that only helps FDC to widen its political base at the expense of other political parties.
Like Museveni?
“We know that FDC wants to build its political support using other parties. This is exactly what President Museveni did when he created the Movement system in 1986 because his party [NRM] had no support,” Mr Mao said. “They should not force us to love them, as we resolved not to join NRM, we shall not join IPC”.
The IPC is a loose coalition of five opposition political parties planning to field a single presidential candidate next year. The group, which comprises the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Uganda People’s Congress (UPC), the Conservative Party, the Social Democratic Party and JEEMA, is set to pick a join flag-bearer on June 30.
Clauses questioned
Mr Mao said the IPC should present its proposal to Ugandans instead of concentrating on making outrageous attacks against DP. He said his party is also uncomfortable with some clauses of the IPC protocol which indirectly suspend use of other party symbols and colours until 2016. “Whatever they do or say will not divert us. We are still firm and ready to proceed. We can’t walk out of NRM and join another ‘movement system,” he said. “Uganda needs a fresh start with a civilian leadership”.
Whereas the IPC’s thinking is that a united opposition offers the best option to unseat President Museveni and his ruling NRM party, the DP insists several opposing fronts will weaken the current regime best. The DP, however, has offered to field joint candidates with other opposition parties at the local council and parliamentary levels.
Reacting to Mr Mao’s latest criticism, the FDC spokesperson, Mr Wafula Oguttu, said the IPC was treating every party member equally and with equal representation at the steering committee. He said joint candidates who will be elected through IPC primaries will use their respective political parties’ colours and symbols.
“What he is saying is dishonest. Mao is a lawyer who understands everything in the protocol. He is lying to himself, party and Ugandans,” Mr Wafula said. “Even at the level of voting, the IPC flag bearer, each party will have 50 people and their national chairman.”
Last week, the DP National Council rejected calls by other opposition parties that it joins the IPC, saying a single opposition candidate against an incumbent can easily be defeated. The DP National Chairman, Mr Baswale Kezaala, said the national council adopted the decision that had earlier been taken by the National Executive Committee to work with the IPC at parliamentary and local council elections.
Kezaala speaks
“The delegates insist that we [NEC] craft a way of working with IPC at all other levels but not at the presidential platform. Unlike the parliamentary and local council elections where the winner needs majority support, the presidential victory require a fixed 51 per cent which an incumbent can easily attain with a single opponent,” Mr Kezaala said. “There is also a possibility of disqualifying a sole opposition candidate basing on trumped up charges by the state.”
Recently, Mr Oguttu said DP’s proposal of partial cooperation was not applicable since the IPC protocol binds all members to specific rules and guidelines
No comments:
Post a Comment