Kampala, Uganda – The leading party of Uganda, the national resistance movement, is trying to prevent potential political candidates from presenting themselves as an independent.
In April, he made a requirement for budding candidates to sign commitments promising that they will not present themselves as independents if they lose festive primaries which take place this week.
This decision aims to consolidate the unity of the party, explains Emmanuel Lumala Dombo, director of information and advertising of the party. Party members must respect the results of the primaries, he says, and support the members who win.
“If they plan to remain independent, they should not participate in the primaries,” explains Enoch Barata, director of legal affairs of the party. He adds that party leaders have already communicated to members what is required of them. “We were indulgent the last time because we have held elections during the cocovid period,” explains Barata.
But some fear that the decision of the dominant party of the country will restrict political participation and deepens internal tensions before the elections, in a country where these primaries of the party are tainted by irregularities and where the long term of President Yoweri Museveni has left few viable paths for alternative analyzes outside the main parties.
It is “a recipe for violence”, explains Gerald Walulya, political analyst and lecturer in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Makerere. The main parties of the country, the national resistance movement and the national unity platform, have a history of defective selection and election processes. Declacing NRM members a chance to run as an indebtedness will only get things to get things into it, he said.
Long -standing
While Uganda has several political parties – including the national unity platform, the opposition party with the greatest number of members of the current Parliament – the National Resistance Movement dominated the political landscape for almost four decades.
Museveni, the National President of the Party, has had power since 1986 and should arise for a seventh term during the 2026 general elections.
In the current Parliament, the party has 342 seats elected out of 520 – around 66%. He also has control of 26 official members appointed by the president.
Given the party’s domination, the real battle for many candidates is in these primaries, explains Sabiti Makara, professor in the Governance Department of the University of Kabale.
“If you win (primaries), there are several advantages,” he said, noting that political machinery provides logistical and financial support, which increases the chances of a candidate to win the national elections.
“The party cultivated the support of the base. This facilitates their lives, ”explains Makara.
Due to this pressure, it is not uncommon for rival camps to run during the primaries. In the 2016 primaries, the network of electoral observers of citizens in Uganda has documented many cases of intimidation and violence between rival factions within the party. Other electoral observers and judicial deposits have also documented incidents of violence, irregularities and intimidation during the primaries of the party.
Last week, Tanga Odoi, president of the Party electoral commission, suspended campaigns in the Isingiro and Sembabule districts, citing increased violence as one of the reasons.
And this could worsen because the aspirants know that they cannot work as independents if they lose. “You make a do-gold. (Party members) will invest every effort to make sure they win, ”explains Walulya, political analyst.
But Dombo, director of information and party advertising, says that there are measures to ensure that the primaries are credible. To avoid irregularities, they cleaned the party register and serialized declaration forms so that they cannot be photocopied, which, according to him, was a problem in previous elections.
A game of figures
The constitution allows everything eligible to go to the elections with or without support from the game.
But the previous reforms have tried to make the task more difficult for defectors who want to present themselves as an independent. For example, the 2019 parliamentary election bill (modification) tried to introduce restrictions, forcing former members to have ceased members for 12 months before they can present themselves as independent candidates. The provision was deleted before the president located the bill in June 2020.
According to the race candidates independently, he is simply a game of figures, explains Makara, the professor of the University of Kabale. “They know that the figures are important, especially in Parliament. Each party wants to come with as many members as possible, ”he says.
The number of independent candidates who win parliamentary seats each electoral cycle continues to grow. The eighth parliament in 2006 had 37 independent members. In the current Parliament, the number amounts to 69, exceeding 57 seats of the national unit platform.
“They know that the figures are important, especially in Parliament. Each party wants to come with as many members as possible. ” Professor in the Governance Department of the University of Kabale
The parties can establish internal rules, explains Ladislaus Rwakafuzi, a constitutional lawyer. But that does not mean that the members will stick to it. “If people leave agreements like marriage, what would you say about (these) agreements?”
Some who lose could ignore the rule and always present themselves as an indebtedness, he says, and legally the party cannot stop them. “If people vote for you, nobody (can) challenge themselves against this because you have raped the party agreements. There are (there are) other reasons, ”explains Rwakafuzi.
Julius Mucunguzi is spokesperson for the country’s electoral commission. He says people are free to present themselves as independent candidates. “We will name those who are approved by their parties and those who come as independent,” he says.
After the primaries
What could happen after the primaries are concerned about Muhammad Lusswa Luwemba, president of the Independent Association, an association of independent candidates.
He says that in the past, the main parties of the country have had a history of punishment from those who jump the ship to run independently. It happened to him and other members of the association, he said.
In March this year, Luwemba ran in the Ba-Yelets de Kawempe North elections as an independent candidate. He alleged that his supporters were harassed and beaten and that his campaigns have disrupted by the supporters of his former party, the NUP opposition. Luwemba thinks that those who defy the agreement of the NRM party in power are likely to face the same reprisals.
These concerns are involved at a time when the American agency for international development, which supported voters’ education programs and election surveillance in Uganda, ended its support.
These weakened controls, the risks are higher, explains Francis Opio, responsible for governance and political advocacy at the Kabarole Research and Resource Center, a local non -governmental organization which led the follow -up of the elections until the USAID ended funding.
Opio says that this new rule may make self -employed and their supporters for attacks. “There is no tolerance,” he says. “(It) will create problems.”
For the party strategy to work, the candidates must confirm that they have really lost, explains Rachel Frances Adyango, member of the MNR in power and a double candidate for the deputy woman of the city of Soroti. “If I confirm that the voters have not voted me and that I did not win, I will resign,” she says. But if there is evidence that the primaries have been faked, it says it will be difficult for members to meet the requirement.
The elections will be different this time, explains Barata, director of legal affairs of NRM. “We are convinced that we will have a much fairer election this time,” he said.