Untold story of FDC primaries

Just like the ruling National Resistance Movement Party internal elections, the on-going Forum for Democratic Change polls have not been devoid of allegations of vote-rigging.

Unlike the NRM which used the universal adult suffrage system, FDC elections are being conducted through the electoral college system, where few parish, district and division officials decide the flag bearers for members of Parliament and local council seats.

Lacking enough manpower and facing other logistical challenges, the FDC decided to carry out voting in different regions of the country on different days. But even this did not guarantee a fair electoral process. In Arua District where voting was largely peaceful, the district FDC leadership was forced to postpone the exercise to the next day due to late delivery of electoral materials.

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In Gulu District, a batch of losers is threatening to quit the party for what they called “lack of internal democracy”. The officials claim to have been rigged out.

They have given the party secretariat a two-week ultimatum to organise fresh polls or else they run as independents in the 2011 general elections.

The officials accuse FDC national secretary for campaigns and Aswa County MP, Mr Reagan Okumu, of having acted as a king-maker by endorsing their opponents, who eventually won the primary elections. But Mr Okumu told Inside Politics that he had little to do with elections in Gulu.

Guide voters
“All I did was to guide voters on choice of the best candidate. We needed candidates who are strong enough to beat the NRM flag bearers,” Mr Okumu said.

Mr Basil Odongpiny, the loser in Amuru FDC LC5 race said he has headed FDC in the district for many years and therefore would not budge after a shoddy electral process.

“I’m not going to accept this. I will contest as an independent candidate in the general elections because I don’t believe that my supporters can vote for someone else,” Mr Odongpiny said.

He said the number of registered voters on the register did not match the actual number of bona-fide voters. This, he argued, is a manifestation that the registers were tampered with.

The loser in the Amuru District race, Mr Gilbert Olany, also said he would stand as an independent candidate. He insists that Mr Anthony Akol who defeated him in the polls, did so fraudulently.

Ms Lily Dranzoa, another loser for the Adjumani Woman MP flag bearer, took the defeat so personally that she refused to sign the declaration forms as this would mean endorsing her opponent, whom she says won unfairly.

It is only the Gulu District vice chairman, Mr Makmot Kirata, who conceded defeat to district Speaker, Martin Ojara Mapenduzi.

Kampala test
The biggest test to FDC’s internal cohesion will perhaps be the elections for Nakawa MP seat and Kampala Woman MP. Kampala Woman MP, Ms Nabila Ssempala, is facing the challenge of her life, with Ms Rashida Naluwoza, a journalist-turned politician, breathing down her political neck. The two women’s camps have already been trading blows in the on-going parish elections in city.

Ms Ssempala seems to have run out of favour with some FDC officials who say she does not respect party leaders, is unapproachable, does not honour her party duties.

“She has spent three years without visiting the party headquarters,” said one FDC official who did not want to be named.
However, other senior party officials still regard Ms Ssempala as a person with good mobilisation skills and capable of retaining her seat. Her development programmes like the candle-making project for women has made her popular among Kampala women.

Even party leader Dr Kizza Besigye seems to be unsure who to back between the two protagonists in the Kampala Woman MP race. In one of the FDC national executive committee meetings, Ms Ssempala reportedly complained that senior party officials were sponsoring her opponent.

To this, Dr Besigye said, “If the two officials (Ssempala and Rashida) cannot agree by consensus, they should be left to face delegates. Even myself, I went through elections and you all saw how transparent it was. No one should be scared of going through the same.”

In Nakawa, FDC’s external relations coordinator, Ms Anne Mugisha is fighting tooth and nail to undo Mr Michael Kabaziguruka, a former FDC deputy electoral commission chairperson.

Ms Mugisha accuses the party electoral commission of incompetence and lack of will to conduct a free and fair election in Nakawa.
“Someone has to blow this out of the water,” said Ms Mugisha in a message posted on her facebook page. “The current FDC leadership has neither the capacity nor the will to conduct free and fair elections in Nakawa. I will not subject myself to the FDC electoral commission to determine my participation in Nakawa politics.” Ms Mugisha, however, insists that she remains a devoted member of the party.

FDC is conducting elections for Polling Area Branch (PAB) and Parish structures in Nakawa Division. But both Ms Mugisha and Mr Kabaziguruka have been on the ground, attempting to control the exercise since parish officials form the electoral colleges that will elect party’s flag bearers.

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Petitions written
Mr Kabaziguruka is the current FDC chairman for Nakawa. He recently resigned his position as the national deputy electoral commissioner in order to take part in Nakawa polls.

However, Ms Mugisha has so far written three petitions asking the party to disqualify him for alleged interference with the voting exercise. Mr Kabaziguruka denies the accusations.

“At Naguru Community Centre, Ms Harriet Nakweda, who was handing out electoral materials and acting on the instructions of the chief electoral commissioner, left the vehicle of the chairman of Kampala District on the insistence of Mr Kabaziguruka, her former boss, and joined Mr Kabaziguruka in his vehicle with electoral materials and voters cards.

The two proceeded to deliver the materials together and to collect returns from several polling stations at the end of the voting exercise,” reads the September 13 petition by Ms Mugisha to the chairperson of FDC electoral commission.

Ms Mugisha says Mr Kabaziguruka should have disqualified himself from the race because of the conflict of interest. “In Bugolobi Parish, at Kayembe polling station, voters claimed that Mr Kabaziguruka availed them with copies of electoral materials (return forms) with instructions to pre-select names of candidates and demand that the presiding officer copy those lists in the true original return forms,” she says.

Kampala FDC chairman, Mr Livingston Kizito, who oversaw voting for parish elections in Naguru, described the exercise as “sham”.
“I was there and there was nothing like voting,” Mr Kizito said.
“I am the one who saved the returning officer from angry supporters who were accusing her of rigging in favour of Mr Kabaziguruka. I am surprised that she now says she has the results. Where did she get the results from?”

While acknowledging that she was pulled from the angry crowd that was threatening to lynch her, Ms Dembe Catherine, the returning officer who oversaw the voting exercise, told Inside Politics that voting had taken place before chaos broke out.

“I have actually just finished submitting the results. Let any aggrieved party petition the electoral commission. But I have finished my work,”Ms Dembe said.

To Ms Mugisha’s relief, the FDC National Executive Committee on Tuesday cancelled the Nakawa voting and ordered for fresh polls this weekend. It remains to be seen how the FDC will deal with disagreements emerging out of its internal elections