Ugandan voters consider individual merit, that is why Besigye and Museveni remain popular- Report

By Phillip Mwebaza

Many politicians, experts, and analysts came out yesterday to weigh on the results of the Uganda Governance Pulse that was presented Skyz Hotel.

The survey report was meant to reveal findings of the public perception on the general direction of the country, economy, awareness of the electoral process, political freedom of expression, politics by gender, and peaceful demonstration.

While speaking on NBS morning breeze, Patrick Wakida the Chief Executive officer of Research World International said that" Research findings are as good as their interpretation. The biggest number of people who vote in this country are women and young people. Men don't vote as much."

Patrick Wakida refers to Ugandans as people who haven't moved away from individual merit and thus hinted that people who vote Museveni or Besigye are not necessarily NRM or FDC.

"The survey reveals that Ugandans don't belong to political parties. The majority identified with parties, but they don't have membership cards. They just associate with parties. People are not likely to vote according to parties," said Patrick Wakida.

However, speaking on the same show, Colonel Shaban Bantariza the Deputy NRM spokesperson refutes Wakida's submission as he hints that NRM majority of voters.

"Sampling is not always accurate. According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, a community with the majority population gets mass sampling but however, we as NRM had our research between 5th and 19th March and through our registers, we managed to record 11.5million people who are registered under NRM. However, the number would rise to 13 million if the school children were also included," said Col Shaban.

Patrick Wakida noted that people are associating with political parties since they have no commitment and the same have never contributed financially to the political party. That is why you see people shifting from NRM to FDC and then NUP.

In response to political commitment, Deputy NRM spokesperson Col Shaban Bantariza said that "Politics in Africa and Uganda is challenged by the fact that membership to political parties is not based on ideology."

Col Shaban thus cites that Hon Kyagulanyi Ssentamu's are not yet members but are just enthusiasts who come to see musicians, comedians and then you find them on another political party rally doing the same.

"Unfortunately, Bobi Wine's people are not yet members. They are just enthusiasts and supporters. We don't know if this will translate into votes. The taste of the pudding is in the eating.”

The report was conducted in March 2020 before the lockdown was imposed and it involved 2,321 respondents spread in 218 parishes in all the 15 regions of Uganda.

The report findings indicate that 47% of all people that were interviewed chose President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni as their favorite candidate followed by Hon Kyagulanyi Ssentamu with 22%, Kizza Besigye with 17% while 11% were undecided on who to choose.

The report was produced by three Ugandan organizations: Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE), Uganda National NGO Forum (UNNGOF), and the Great Lakes Institute for Strategic Studies (GLISS).