The National Unity Platform (NUP) party will once again face a turbulent time in this political season as many of the party aspirants who missed out on getting the party flag have vowed to run in their respective constituencies, in total disregard of the party’s advice to them not to stand.
Political commentators say the squabbles within the party, especially the incumbents who missed out on the party flag, could cause a rift within the party and possible division of votes, which will favour the NRM.
Dr Fredrick Golooba, a political scientist from Makerere University, says it is not obvious for either the incumbents running as independents or the NUP candidates as well.
‘They will have to divide the votes, which will obviously create a chance for the NRM candidates,’ he says. The NUP constitution is silent on how to handle party members who defy the leadership position on carrying the flag, especially at parliamentary elections. It is rather categorical on the President’s position.
On several occasions, leaders of the party have always said that whoever defies the party position on the flagbearer decisions and runs as an Independent ceases to be a party member and would have to go through the normal restoration processes back into the party.
Some of the members who have already made clear their positions include Allan Ssewanyana, who lost the Makindye West flag to Zahara Luyirika, the KCCA speaker.
‘The people of Makindye West sent me to Parliament to represent them, and they are the ones who can get me away from there. I will still go back to them to allow me to go back and finish the job I started,’ he said.
Both Ms Joyce Bagala, the Mityana Woman MP, who was replaced by Ms Proscovia Nabbosa, and Bukoto East MP Medard Ssegona, who was replaced by Mathias Walukaga, the Kyengera Town Council mayor, have also insisted that they will take the people’s choice and not the party’s.
‘Due to the call from my people of Bukoto West, I will be content as an independent, but I will continue to support my president (Bobi Wine) because his ideas resonate with what an ideal Uganda ought to be,’ Mr Sseggona said.
The NUP has established a desk at their party headquarters to receive petitions from any complainants with a view to scrutinising the concerns. But party leaders say none of the incumbents who lost have reached out, save for the media interviews that they have seen.
By last evening, a member of the petitions committee, who indicated that he is not permitted to speak to the media, intimated that they had received only about 20 complaints and that they were waiting to get more within the week.
‘If they don’t [complainants] file petitions, it becomes hard for us to track them from social media or other media platforms. Most of the petitions are coming in from the first-time MP aspirants, and we can wait and see how this week ends,’ the source says.
The Opposition party is yet to heal from the conundrum they got themselves into in the just-concluded local government and mayoral flag race. Many of the party’s top cadres vowed to run as independents in the coming elections.
Ms Harriet Chemutai, the NUP Election Management Committee chairperson, said: ‘We played our part and we know the candidates we have given to our people are the best. Those who are running as independents will only prove that what we are telling them is actually the truth.’
In the last elections, many of the NUP aspirants who were denied party tickets went on to run as independents, but no one made it to Parliament.
Dr Golooba says: ‘If NUP did the due diligence that they are talking about here, even if they run as independents, they will certainly not go through. There is also a group of some NUP members who still want their candidate, and that makes everything complicated, but this is what is happening in all the other political parties.’
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‘If NUP did the due diligence that they are talking about [vetting process], even if they [who lost party flags]run as independents, they will certainly not go through. There is also a group of NUP members who still want their [old] candidates, complicating things,” Dr Fredrick Golooba, political scientist from Makerere University