The question as to whether Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) kingpin Kizza Besigye should represent the party at next year’s general polls continues to divide top shots in the opposition outfit.
Last weekend, the party president Patrick Oboi Amuriat speaking in Gulu northern Uganda, said that the FDC’s National Executive Committee had agreed that if Besigye expresses interest to seek the party flag, there will be no competition.
“”We shall hold nominations & elections for presidential flag bearer of FDC If Kizza Besigye offers himself as a candidate then there will be no election, that’s the position of the party’s top organ,” Amuriat said on Sunday.
However, his remarks have been binned by the party spokesperson, Ibrahim Semujju Nganda, saying they are just wishes and not in the constitution of the party.
“Those who want to be presidential candidates should pick nomination forms. If Dr Besigye is one of them, certainly, wee subject him to a process, if the process returns him unopposed, certainly he will be unopposed,” Semujju said.
On Amuriat, he added, “that is the wish of the party president.”
Supporters of Nganda’s line of argument say if the FDC does what the president wants, it will not be any different from the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party that they have long bashed for institutionalising sole presidency.
Amuriat’s statements drew scorn from a section of Ugandans on social media with many saying the opposition party that wants to unseat the current government is ‘more of the same.’
Besigye has contested four times against President Yoweri Museveni and lost at all attempts.
There have been growing calls by new kids on the block, People Power now National Unity Platform, for him to give way to their supreme leader Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine to also give a shot at the presidency.