The Country Director of the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD), Primus Atukwatse Bahiigi, has called for a renewed national commitment to dialogue, electoral reforms, and the protection of citizen dignity in Uganda’s democratic processes.
Speaking to Canary Mugume during Next Big Talk on Next Radio on Saturday, Bahiigi stated that a recent hotspot mapping exercise, which sought to understand the drivers of conflict during electoral processes across the country identified several factors contributing to electoral violence and instability. Central to them us the radicalization of political party members by political actors—a practice he noted cuts across all political parties.
“We conducted hotspot mapping to understand some of the drivers of conflict in electoral processes. One of the critical issues identified is the radicalization of members by political actors, and this is something we observed across all political parties,” he said.
Bahiigi emphasised that Uganda’s democratic future depends on the deliberate choices made by citizens regarding governance and political participation.
“There is a need for us as citizens to make a deliberate choice on how we want to be governed,” he said.
Bahiigi underscored the importance of collective responsibility in strengthening democracy, urging leaders, citizens, the media, civil society organizations, and academia to work together and agree on basic democratic principles.
“We must come together and agree on bare minimums—one of them being the dignity of citizens who go to vote,” he said.
The NIMD Country Director further called for a negotiated and dialogue-driven future for Uganda, anchored in guarantees and reforms aimed at improving electoral governance and national cohesion.
“We need to have a negotiated and dialogued future where we put guarantees and reforms that can build a better Uganda,” he said.
However, Bahiigi noted that a major challenge facing the country is a persistent reluctance to embrace dialogue as a viable tool for resolving political differences.
“The challenge we have as a country is that we have not reached a point where we appreciate that dialogue can work. Sometimes, we have chosen to take the radical approach,” he said.
With just weeks to the elections, Bahiigi urged all stakeholders to reject radicalism and instead embrace constructive engagement as the foundation for peaceful, credible, and inclusive electoral processes in Uganda.
