There is growing fear among political actors that Uganda’s opposition political parties continue to be under captivity, with powerful individuals holding their parties at ransom.
Political observers said such members are mainly pushing for their agenda other than the party ideology adding that this has delayed and contradicted the major purpose of the party’s existence.
The remarks were made during ActionAid e-conference on elections and good governance under the theme; The role of political parties in building a strong democracy in Uganda
According to the FDC deputy secretary general, Harold Kaija, political parties have challenges but the environment created by president Museveni cannot allow these parties to freely grow.
“Democracy is a process. Here, you have an individual who can’t allow his party to grow because structures bring good leaders. I haven’t seen any developed country that curtails the development of political parties,” said Kaija.
The president of Justice Forum, Asuman Basalirwa said the restrictive environment created for political parties to operate has made it difficult to organise delegates conferences at the moment.
“Our concern should be the environment under which we are doing politics. The police and army must behave. If we don’t address that, we are making a wrong diagnosis of political parties,” he said.
He said although all political parties in Uganda aspire to be democratic, there are many temptations to drive them into undemocratic tendencies.
“There is a big mistake we make when discussing political parties in Uganda, locating it from 2005. If you want to understand the context in which our parties operate, you have to look at it from our history,” said Basalirwa.
Kabarole Woman Member of Parliament, Sylvia Rwabwogo said there is extremism in some political parties and this is not strengthening political parties in the country.
“If you take president Museveni out of NRM, it will struggle. We have built this individualism in our party. If you took President Museveni to JEEMA, JEEMA would have a landslide victory in the upcoming general election,” she said.
Rwabwogo said political parties in Uganda don’t have democratic processes adding that NRM has some level of democracy but the choice of lining up wasn’t the right one for the party primaries.