The\nDemocratic Party (DP) has officially handed over Inter Party Organisation for\nDialogue (IPOD) leadership to the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However,\nthe ruling political party, National Resistance Movement (NRM), boycotted the\nhandover as their seats remained empty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gerald\nSiranda, the chairperson of the IPOD council handed over the mantle to FDC\u2019s\nNathan Nandala Mafabi while DP president Norbert Mao who has been the president\nof the summit handed over to Patrick Oboi Amuriat, the FDC President<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nchairperson of the elder’s Forum, justice James Ogoola congratulated all\nparties upon peacefully handing over of the mantle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I\nwant to congratulate you for the peaceful handover of authority from green, I\nused to call it blue but now Hon Musumba tells me that it is sky blue. The nation\nhas applauded this series of IPOD dialogue and summit at a time like this, we\nneed national harmony not national discord,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
FDC\nSecretary General Nathan Nandala Mafabi said; \u201cWe have not come here to\nconfront with anybody, we are coming to work together and to create space for\neverybody in this country to participate equally in the politics of the\ncountry,”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He\nnoted that FDC will ensure transparency in operations and there will be nothing\nwhich will be done by anybody and\naccountability will be availed to all the members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nDP president General, Norbert Mao said that DP has never hesitated to handover\nthe authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He\nalso said that NRM as a key player in this dialogue process, there was no need\nto shun the ceremony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“As\nDP we have never hesitated to handover, in fact we are the only party that has\never handed over power peacefully in the republic of Uganda. IPOD still has\nchallenges as indeed you can see by the empty yellow chairs but I insist that\nthe potential of IPOD outweighs the challenges,” he noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However,\naccording to the NRM, they were never officially invited to the handover\nceremony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\ndidn\u2019t boycott the event as some people have perceived it and we have attended\nto many of these functions before but we did not have an official and formal\ninvitation,\u201d said Rogers Mulindwa, the NRM spokesperson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He\nsaid the only the message they received was through WhatsApp and they were\nwaiting for confirmation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“What\nthe Secretary General, Hon Kasule Lumumba had was WhatsApp message from the\nIPOD secretariat. We expected to have received a confirmation and we never\nreceive it to that effect,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
According\nto the Memorandum of Understanding, IPOD leadership rotates every after six\nmonths. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nFDC therefore is currently both the chair of the IPOD Summit and IPOD Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nSummit is composed of leaders of political parties and the Council is composed\nof the Secretary Generals and other four representatives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nGovernment and Opposition Whip are also members of the Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nFDC party will aim at pushing for the ratification of decisions that were made in\nMunyonyo where IPOD Council deliberated on the management of public rallies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
IPOD\nhouses four parties that include; Democratic Party (DP), Forum for Democratic\nChange (FDC), Uganda People\u2019s Congress (UPC) and National Resistance Movement\n(NRM).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
IPOD\nis facilitated by the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD) and\nwas formed to initiate dialogue and exchange of ideas among political parties\nin the country with a view of improving electoral democracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Democratic Party (DP) has officially handed over Inter Party Organisation for Dialogue (IPOD) leadership to the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC). However, the ruling political party, National Resistance Movement (NRM), boycotted the handover as their seats remained empty. Gerald Siranda, the chairperson of the IPOD council handed over the mantle to FDC\u2019s Nathan Nandala […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2270,"featured_media":12464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_paywall_metabox":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n