Opposition MPs split over boycott of 2016 elections

Leader of Opposition in Parliament Wafula Oguttu (C) with fellow Members of Parliament during the Opposition caucus retreat on constitutional and electoral reforms at Royal Suites Hotel in Kampala yesterday. PHOTO BY STEPHEN WANDERA.

What you need to know:

Some argue that opting out of the polls over government’s failure to implement electoral reforms would have no impact on what they described as a dictatorial regime.

Kampala- Opposition MPs will today meet for the second time to agree on what action to take if the government rejects to carry out electoral reforms to guarantee a free poll in February next year.

In divisions reminiscent of the run-up to the 2011 polls when the Opposition parties under the Inter Party Coalition (IPC) differed on whether to go to the ballot or not, the MPs were yesterday split on the idea of a boycott.

Key among the concerns which the Opposition wants addressed is demobilisation of the Electoral Commission to pave way for the appointment of an independent electoral body, compiling of a new national voters’ register and radically revising of the role of security agencies in the electoral process.

At the opening of the retreat yesterday at the Royal Suites Hotel, Bugolobi, just outside the city centre, FDC deputy secretary general Augustine Ruzindana asked the MPs to come up with a clear position on whether they will participate or boycott next year’s polls.

Rukiga County MP Jack Sabiiti led those against participation if reforms are not implemented while Mr Wafula Oguttu, the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, spoke against a boycott. By press time, no definitive position had been agreed.

Mr Oguttu argued that a boycott can only be tenable if it is either followed by armed resistance or civil disobedience, but urged caution, warning that the government can still create briefcase political parties to take part in the polls so as to lend them credibility.

“I do not think that with a dictatorship like the one of Mr Museveni, you boycott elections. Unless you go and start a serious armed struggle or civil disobedience uprising, but if you boycott this one and stay in your homes and think the world would be sorry or angry about it, you lose out,” Mr Oguttu said.

Busongora North MP William Nzoghu warned that boycotting the polls would be ceding ground to the NRM in strongholds currently controlled by the Opposition.

“The Opposition is strong in some constituencies. If they boycott, you are ideally handing them over to the NRM. For the Opposition to think they can boycott and come out as victors would be wishful thinking,” Mr Nzoghu said.

The retreat will today also hear presentations from former assistant Bishop for Kampala Zac Niringiye, the who was instrumental in drafting the Citizens’ Compact - a compilation of proposed reforms.