Hurdles parties face as they discuss Ipod future

President Museveni welcomes former Democratic Party secretary general Mathias Nsubuga (left) and other Opposition leaders to State House Entebbe last year for talks under the auspices of Ipod. FILE PHOTO

What you need to know:

  • Review. In 2015, Opposition parties that formed The Democratic Alliance polls resolved to withdraw from Ipod. FDC also made a tactical withdraw from Ipod in July 2016 pending what they termed as reforms in the organisation. In reviewing their MoU, parties hope to create an organisation that has a backbone to propose and push through reforms, Stephen Kafeero writes.

When leaders of political parties with representation in Parliament met recently, one thing was clear, there was need to dialogue for the good of the country. The elephant in the room, however, seemed to be how to go about it and what results, if any, such dialogue would bring in future.
The leaders from the National Resistance Movement (NRM), Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Democratic Party (DP) and Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) were meeting to review the Inter Party Organisation for Dialogue (Ipod) Memorandum of Understanding.
Founded in 2010, Ipod, which is facilitated by the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NMID), provides a platform to parties with representation in Parliament to generate consensus on various issues of national importance.
The environment within which the parties operate has twice threatened to break up the organisation in the last two years.
In 2015, Opposition parties that had formed The Democratic Alliance ahead of the 2016 polls resolved to withdraw from Ipod and the National Consultative Forum after all options to dialogue on electoral reforms had hit a dead end.
Parliament had earlier passed the Constitutional Amendment Bill without the proposed reforms, including those that had been agreed upon in Ipod with the ruling NRM represented.
FDC also made a tactical withdraw from Ipod in July 2016 pending what they termed as reforms in the organisation.
In reviewing their MoU, parties hope to create an organisation that has a backbone to propose and push through reforms, especially electoral reforms.
Ahead of the 2016 general elections, parties under Ipod, including the ruling NRM, agreed on 45 out of the 48 proposed electoral reforms which were not considered in the Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2015.
With Constitutional Review Commission expected to be announced in the near future, parties especially those in the Opposition under Ipod will be looking at using the organisation as a vehicle to develop consensus on a number of reform proposals.
Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda on Friday last week confirmed government was in the final stages of setting up the long awaited commission which he said would deal with the outstanding proposals.
“There were many proposals that had been made before the elections on how to improve our system of elections and general political environment. Government in principal was in agreement, however, time constraint did not allow us to carry out legal and constitutional amendments and that is why a review commission is being put in place to carry forward the ideas and proposals that were submitted before elections and new ideas that may come up now so that we can formally put them in the constitutional framework of the country,” Dr Rugunda, who was flanked by Electoral Commission officials, including EC chairman Simon Byabakama, said.

Mistrust
NRM has on several occasions reiterated the party’s commitment to dialogue with the Opposition, but there is a general belief that those who negotiate on behalf of NRM in Ipod have no real power to push through the agreed on reforms.
Some leaders in the Opposition also accuse NRM of using Ipod as a scapegoat every time the ruling party is questioned on its commitment to dialogue.
The Opposition’s mistrust is rooted in past experiences such as the ruling party ignoring proposed electoral reforms ahead of the 2011 and 2016 polls and the passing of the Public Order Management Act (POMA) despite Opposition protests.
“What do we really agree on as Ipod, are we just tagging along because our friends in the Netherlands Institute of Multiparty Democracy have decided to launch a project in Uganda? What is the glue that holds Ipod together?” DP president Norbert Mao asked a meeting of Ipod leaders in Kampala recently.
Also, the former presidential candidate argues that there must be defined things that members of Ipod agree on. Without them, Mr Mao says, they should wind up IPOD.
The fundamental tenet of Ipod’s existence, according to Mr Mao, is to ensure that “if one party is in power, others don’t feel threatened or run to exile. The love for Uganda Mr Mao says should be a uniting factor”.
FDC president Mugisha Muntu believes dialogue between parties must be informed by shared values such as democracy, transparency, justice and fairness.
“When we find ourselves in engagements of this nature, we need to realise that it’s an opportunity for us if we are equal to the task of ensuring that we live what we espouse or we live what we talk about.”
He said there is a sharp difference between what is written down in constitutions, manifestos and other documents of political parties and what is actually practiced.
The FDC party leader says dialogue among political parties should not just be about the current problems bedevilling the country but also how to build a firm foundation on which Uganda can be better governed irrespective of the party that is in power.
Lira Municipality MP and president of one of the two UPC factions Jimmy Akena says dialogue must take centre stage.
“As somebody who has lived through much of the political ups and downs of this country, I have come to appreciate and realise that we only have this one country and it is going up to us as leaders to forge a common destiny which is going to work for all Ugandans,” he says.
Mr Akena says political parties under IPOD should use the platform to discuss a transition from the current government to the next.
“Through the Ipod framework, I think we can have some meaningful discussions and we tackle some difficult questions which will come whether we want them or not,” he says.

Summit woes
The summit is the highest organ of IPOD. Party heads like chairpersons and presidents are supposed to meet at this organ but it has been unable to meet in the past due to differences. The summit is supposed to approve policies, provide political guidance and approve annual budgets and programmes of Ipod, but it has been unable to meet due to differences in the parties.
FDC maintains the summit cannot meet without having a national dialogue to resolve the country’s fundamental challenges.
Ruling NRM party deputy secretary general Richard Todwong had recently told a meeting of political parties under Ipod that President Museveni was ready to meet with other political party leaders under the Ipod summit if he was invited.
“I would like to believe all of us want to meet as leaders. I would like to believe Gen Museveni wants to meet us as Opposition, we would like to meet with government but we put four conditions since 2011 and it is on the basis of those four conditions negotiated and agreed upon that we can go into any dialogue,” Gen Muntu said.
Once the conditions, which include an agreed agenda, a neutral arbiter, dialogue involving all stakeholders and guarantee that the things agreed on will be implemented are fulfilled, Gen Muntu said the Opposition, particularly FDC, has no problem meeting President Museveni and other leaders under Ipod or any other platform.

Support to parties

There is a general belief that Ipod as it is constituted now cannot be the vehicle to provide the answers that political parties, especially those in Opposition, believe dialogue should be answering.
Doing away with Ipod, however, implies that Opposition parties whose resource envelope cannot compete with that of the ruling NRM have to give up the accruing benefits.
NIMD through Ipod provides direct party assistance member parties. The assistance is linked to the multiparty dialogue component and policy development within the party.

Comment

“What do we really agree on as Ipod, are we just tagging along because our friends in the Netherlands Institute of Multiparty Democracy have decided to launch a project in Uganda? What is the glue that holds Ipod together?”
DP president Norbert Mao