FDC: The violence in the NRM primaries was a precursor of what will happen in 2021

The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has condemned the violence and bribery that characterised the recently concluded National Resistance Movement (NRM) primaries for parliamentary candidates.

While addressing the media at the party headquarters, Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, the party spokesperson, voiced fears that the evils perpetrated in the NRM primaries will be transferred into the general polls.

"Everything that can go wrong during an election, went wrong,"Nganda said adding that the NRM chairman should come out and crash the untouchables as he promised.

"There is nobody who can give an order to deploy the military except President Museveni. The older he gets, the more he relaxes on strictness. Anyone can walk in, ask for military escorts and be given the security,"he said.

"The bad manners exhibited in the NRM elections will as a matter of fact be exported to the 2021 general election,"he added.

Nganda accused President Museveni of overthrowing the party’s electoral commission and the secretariat when he ordered both eligible and none eligible members to participate in the elections.

"The violence was headlined by Minister Mwesigwa Rukutana [allegedly] grabbing an AK 47 from a bodyguard and attempting to shoot supporters of his opponent,"said Nganda.

Nganda said the amount of money dished out during the primaries made the exercise look like a procurement competition  and not an election.

"The “magye” (army) is being deployed to stop competitors from carrying out electoral activities. The full state machinery has been deployed to influence the outcome of elections. Mr Museveni who waged a war because elections were rigged in 1980 is guilty of doing the same," he said.