DP calls for crisis meeting to address defections

The Democratic Party has called for crisis National Executive committee (NEC) meeting to address increasing defections of its members to the ruling National Resistance Movement and other parties.

On Monday, the party National Chairman, Mr Muhammad Baswale Kezaala, resigned following his appointment as an ambassador by President Museveni.

 “This being a civil service job which naturally should not require being  partisan and given the fact that I may not be available all the time to serve my party effectively as the National Chairman, I thought it fit that I tender in my resignation,” he said.

The appointment threw the country’s oldest political organisation into turmoil with observers saying the party has over the years been reduced to a political kindergarten where politicians are nurtured before joining other political parties.    

On Tuesday, DP president Norbert Mao said they accepted   Mr Kezaala’s resignation “with deep regret”  and appointed the deputy national chairman, Mr Kiwanuka Mayambala, to take over the position until further notice.

“Mr Mayambala will perform the duties of that office and assume those duties with immediate effect,” Mr Mao said.

Ms Stella Kiryowa, another party member, on Monday picked nomination forms to contest for the East African Legislative Assembly seat on the NRM ticket which shows that she is no longer a DP member.

Mr Mao told journalists that on top of defections, the party is going through a defining moment which calls for an emergency NEC meeting on a date he did not set.

“There is a crisis of confidence in the party. There are those who think that the party can no longer help them to fulfill their personal ambitions and national destiny of restoring democracy,” Mr Mao said.

“What will come out of DP during the NEC meeting at this moment of pressure is what the DP is made of. Tha’s why we call it a defining moment. Every individual of DP will reveal who they are and what they are made of individually, ”Mr Mao said.  “Days ahead, we will reveal what a Democratic Party supporter stands for and where the party is going,” Mr Mao said.

After last year’s elections, President Museveni appointed Ms Nakiwala Kiyingi as a Youth minister. Ms Kiyingi who contested for the Kampala Woman MP seat and lost to Forum for Democratic Change Nabillah Naggayi, is married to Bukomansimbi MP Deogratius Kiyingi (DP).