With numerous prominent party members declaring they won’t be participating in the internal elections, the conflicts inside the opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party are getting worse.
They have also requested that their other party members do the same.
Elections, according to FDC members going by the name Rescue Mission, are meant to keep the current administration of President Patrick Amuriat Oboi and Secretary General Nathan Nandala Mafabi in place.
Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, a spokesman for the FDC Party, told reporters on Thursday at the Fairway Hotel in Kampala that the elections being pushed by Nandala and Amuriat are essentially a selection where their loyalists are chosen to fill positions.
According to Ssemujju, Nandala selectively distributed party cards before ceasing after his supporters obtained party membership. He continued by saying that the elections in question do not follow any particular registration.
According to Ssemujju, Nandala is so heavily influencing the party electoral commission that the chairperson, Boniface Toterebuka Bamwenda, has lost his objectivity and is now flanked by two people who are well-known to be Nandala and Amuriat loyalists. Former MP Robert Centenary and former KCCA Councilor Moses Okwera are the two men listed as supporters.
The current party electoral commission must be abolished and replaced, among other demands made by the rescue team. Additionally, they want a new spending plan and a fresh schedule for the entire procedure.
According to Ssemujju, this is indicative of a rigged and fake election because some of the people overseeing the current voting process were handpicked by Nandala, while others were chosen by a small group of district chairpersons.
At the press conference, Proscovia Salaam Musumba, the FDC deputy president in charge of eastern Uganda; Erias Lukwago; Phillip Polly Ojara Okin, the deputy president in charge of Buganda; Francis Mwijukye, the deputy treasurer of the FDC; and Doreen Nyanjura, the deputy mayor of Kampala, were among those standing by Ssemujju.
One of the FDC’s founding members, Salaamu Musumba, claims that the party has long advocated for fair elections and that holding a phony election would only serve to legitimize rigged national elections.
Several NEC members are not permitted to enter the party headquarters and direct activities there, according to Erias Lukwago, the party’s Deputy President in charge of Buganda, despite the fact that they want the party to run comprehensive elections that are well organized and have a strategy and a budget.
Kampala Deputy Lord Doreen Nyanjura swore to resist any attempt to sell the party to the in-power National Resistance Movement by any means necessary. She asserts that no amount of beating will intimidate FDC members.
Francis Mwijukye, a Buhweju County MP, further adds that they will take all necessary action to prevent Museveni from assuming control of the FDC and instead take Amuriat, Nandala, and their cohort if they so choose.
Atkins Katusabe, a member of parliament for Bukonzo West, said elections are a process that should be well organized to provide a better result. According to Katusabe, they have a responsibility to the generations that will follow and to the people who lost their lives defending Uganda’s democracy.
Allegations that Nandala and Amuriat brought money into the party from questionable sources have caused trouble for the FDC. The money, referred to as “dirty money” by party insiders, is thought to have originated from the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party, which is currently in power. Despite the fact that the FDC inquiry cleared the pair, the rescue team continued to accuse them of intending to sell out the party to Museveni.