Limping multipartism stakeholders want govt dialogue

On July 28, Uganda will mark 19 years of multi-party politics following its re-introduction in 2005 in a referendum in which Ugandans overwhelmingly voted and approved by over 90 percent votes to return to multi-party politics.

This would end the one party rule the NRM had enjoyed since 1986 to 2005 and allow political parties and organisations to compete in elective politics.

As Uganda marks 19 years of multi-party politics, major stakeholders maintain that Uganda’s multi-party democracy is still limping.

The acting national coordinator of Alliance for National Transformation, Ms Alice Alaso, said the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) has all along been playing to the gallery on multipartism.

"Multiparty was granted due to donor pressure and on the other hand it was limited with creation of repressive laws like Public Order Management Act,” she says.

Uganda returning to multiparty dispensation would mean there would be democracy allowing freedom of speech and association which according major political parties has never seen a test of life.

Ms Alaso believes the government's unwillingness in opening political spaces exhibited repressive laws that followed.

“Going multiparty in 2005 was like the government granting multipartism with one hand and withdrawing it with another by formulating repressive laws like the public order management act curtailing political actives,, Alaso says.

To hold political rallies today political parties are required to seek police permission, the army is involved in elections, opposition political politicians are arbitrarily arrested and detained without trial.

Forum for Democratic Change deputy president for northern region, Hassan Caps Fungaro, now calls for dialogue between government and major stakeholders in the multi-party dispensation.

“We need this dialogue, we have already started consultative meetings with major stakeholders in northern Uganda on how to address crippling multiparty dispensation,” Fungaroo said.

But political scholar John Paul Kasujja believes the dysfunctional multiparty problem is not only in the ruling NRM but even among opposition political parties.

Dr Kasujja blames the failed multipartism on lack of multi-party cultures among political players both in the ruling government and in the opposition.

Kasujju said: ”Tt about the lack of culture that is why even in the opposition parties democracy is wanting.”