Party cooperation: The tea party crumbles

 
On Wednesday last week, the Uganda People's Congress (UPC) became the latest political player to announce it was withdrawing its membership from the State House founded inter-party committee. This effectively marked another failure yet again at joint effort to resolve Uganda's nagging political questions. Inside Politics' MERCY NALUGO investigates the collapse of this latest effort.

On July 28, 2006 five months after the presidential elections, President Museveni invited the people he had trounced to State Housein the elections ealier in February to purposely forge a working relationship with the opposition.

All attended save for the main challenger Forum for Democratic Change (FDC). The meeting went ahead anyway. It agreed to set up an inter-party committee with two nominees from each of the cooperating parties and those that have representation in Parliament.

Former presidential candidates Ssebaana Kizito (Democratic Party), Miria Kalule Obote (Uganda Peoples Congress) and independent Dr Abed Bwanika attended the talks with three representatives each. Besigye and his FDC stayed away.

President Museveni said the meeting was aimed at creating an atmosphere that " politics is not war". "It is both symbolism and substantive."
The parties submitted to President Museveni their memoranda and the government was tasked to come up with a working document.

Room was left for parties with representation in Parliament that did not attend the initial State House talks to submit their memoranda and two nominees to join the team.
FDC insisted it would stay away and joked that the meeting at State House was no more than a tea party. The party demanded that the Constitutionally provided for Inter-Party forum instead be advanced. Besigye, the FDC leader demanded a "neutral" chairman and not Museveni. He also protested State House as being the venue for their meeting[s]. That was in July.

Now hardly a year later, the inter party committee has disintegrated and is at the edge of total collapse after two of the major opposition parties announced they were pulling out.

UPC, one of the old parties in Uganda was all praises for the inter party committee at its formation and had high hopes in it until last Wednesday when they officially announced they had pulled out citing harassment of the opposition by the government.