Basalirwa Team Accuses FDC of Hypocrisy as Bugiri Election Campaigns Heat Up

If latest happenings are to go by, the problems of Uganda's opposition are far from over.

JEEMA candidate Asuman Basalirwa's team have accused fellow opposition party Forum for Democratic Change of being hypocrites and dishonest.

On Thursday, there was a joint press conference held at the Fairway hotel in Kampala addressed by Dr. Kizza Besigye(FDC),Betty Nambooze and Hussein Kyanjo (JEEMA) in which they said after a number of meetings between teams representing Basaalirwa and Eunice Namatende they had failed to reach a consensus on a single opposition  candidate for Bugiri Municupality MP seat.

However, in a press conference held at the JEEMA headquarters in Mengo, Basalirwa's team spokesperson who also doubles as the party president Abdulnoor Kyamundu said what was said by their colleagues on Thursday were only lies.

"They wanted to subject us to a sort of primaries which meant we would be conscripted into the FDC party,"Kyamundu told journalists.

"FDC was trying to take us into their own party processes to determine the candidate. We are an independent party who have been at the forefront of fighting this dictatorship and cannot submit to them."

According to the JEEMA president, they wrote to all opposition parties asking them to rally behind  Basalirwa in Bugiri and that all of them did save FDC turned down the request.

He cited the oldest opposition party, DP who withdrew their candidate Samuel Wakholi to pave way for Basaalirwa.

"We have tried but in the process of negotiations they have come out to blackmail us."

Fairway presser

According to the team representing Basaalirwa, the press conference held at Fairway hotel on Thursday was only organised to blackmail them.

"Hon. Kyanjo was called by Dr. Besigye for a small chat only to be ambushed into addressing the press,"Kyamundu revealed.

Blasts Besigye

The JEEMA president blasted opposition strongman Dr. Kizza Besigye of trying to assume power of the entire opposition leadership.

"Opposition does not mean FDC or Besigye. Some of us opposed Museveni even when these people who want to be superiors of opposition were still with him (Museveni).”

On Thursday, Mukono Municipality legislator Betty Nambooze said she was among those who had been tasked to lead efforts to harmonise their position for a joint candidate but according to Kyamundu, the vocal legislator had never been appointed to that position.

He said there was no capacity in which Nambooze would be chosen to the team.

"She postured as a chief mediator but has never been involved in talks anywhere and portraying herself as such is dishonesty and playing camera politics,"Kyamundu said.

"Her political assistant a one Steven Kaddu is in Bugiri with a team from Mukono campaigning for the FDC candidate. May be that is the mediation she undertook."

He said all the people including Erias Lukwago, Betty Nambooze, Dr. Kizza Besigye and Mubarak Munyagwa who addressed the Thursday press conference are known to campaign for FDC's Namatende.

"All the people that sat in yesterday's presser are Asuman Basalirwa's friends who took decision not  to support him because he's not worth their support," he noted.

"They chose to decampaign Basalirwa directly and others chose to take a neutral stand. Neutrality in an election is a sign of hypocrisy."

The JEEMA president said the Bugiri election will expose all hypocrites in opposition who have always postured as fighting to capture power.

"We shall not fail to expose the hypocrites who speak in parables to hoodwink our people."