Politicians, civil society draw action plan for 2016 elections

L-R: Mr Ken Lukyamuzi, Dr Kizza Besigye, Mr Amanya Mushega, Mr Wafula Oguttu and Mr Erias Lukwago wave during the closure of the National Consultation Conference on Free and Fair Elections in Kampala yesterday. Photo by Dominic Bukenya.

What you need to know:

Leaders task Parliament to ensure their proposals are passed into law for free and fair elections.

Kampala- After three days of talks about how to ensure free and fair elections in 2016, opinion, political and civil society leaders yesterday hammered out 17 action points for Parliament among which are recommendations to prohibit any military involvement in the electoral process, a reduction in MPs’ numbers and restoration of presidential term limits.

“The tenure of Office of the President should be restored to two five-year terms and must be entrenched in the Constitution… The size of Parliament should be reduced in keeping with the modest resources of the State… The army representatives should be removed from Parliament. The military should have no involvement whatsoever in the electoral process,” the final conference document, the Citizen Contract, read in part.

‘No MPs in Cabinet’
Also proposed is the stopping of MPs from serving in Cabinet and a shutting-down of the National Leadership Institute in Kyankwanzi, which has in the past been derided as a political indoctrination school for the ruling party yet it is run using public funds. The conference proposed that a completely new political institute be set up as a replacement.

A fresh call was also made for disbanding the current Electoral Commission, which participants said should be replaced by a truly independent electoral body.

During the conference, civil society organisations, politicians and other civil actors from all around the country have debated how the electoral system can be improved.

Amid cautious optimism for some discussants, Opposition leaders, however, also expressed fears that what was set out as a good idea may not come to anything since the ruling party boycotted the talks.

Yesterday, Mr Richard Ssewakiryanga, the executive director of the Uganda National NGO Platform, said inputs from all Ugandans regardless of ethnic, religious and cultural background is represented in the Citizen Contract.

Mr Ssewakiryanga told the audience at Hotel Africana in Kampala that the document will be presented to Parliament where it is hoped MPs will adopt the proposals within the next few months.

List of proposals sent to parliament
•President’s tenure should be restored to two five-year terms.
•Size of Parliament should be reduced in line with modest resources of the State.
•New independent and impartial electoral commission must be established.
•New verifiable register of all voters, which should include eligible Ugandans in the diaspora, must be compiled.
•Voting for LC3, LC5, Parliament and President should be conducted on one day.
•Military should have no involvement whatsoever in the electoral process.
•President should relinquish command of the armed forces to the Joint Chiefs, and must not serve as chairman of UDPF High Command during elections.
• Workers should be removed from special interest group representation since issues of workers can be represented by all MPs.
• Army representatives should be removed from Parliament.
•The National Institute for Political Education at Kyankwanzi should be abolished and replaced by a National Institute for Administration under an independent Board of Directors.
•Cabinet ministers should not be MPs .
• The office of the Resident District Commissioner should be abolished.

Tumwebaze denies receiving Museveni invite to conference

The minister in-charge of the Presidency yesterday hit out at the organisers of the National Consultation Conference On Free And Fair Elections and denied reports that President Museveni was invited for the three-day event.

In a statement released hours before the conference ended, Mr Frank Tumwebaze said: “I have seen media reports alluding to the fact that the President skipped the meeting on electoral reforms. But how do they claim that the President skipped a meeting he was not invited in?”

President Museveni was on Monday expected to officiate at the opening of the conference. However, neither the President nor an official representative from the ruling NRM turned up. This left the official NRM slot during the entire conference empty.

The organisers of the consultations said they had invited the President and even circulated a copy of the invitation to him complete with a stamp acknowledging receipt by the President’s Office.

To this, Mr Tumwebaaze responded: “We don’t know which office of the President they went to, if at all the said letter is genuine. The address of the President is State House Kampala and it’s the PPS’s office that handles the President’s programme and not any other.”

He said, for instance, the offices of resident district commissioners and internal security are part of the President’s Office but the President’s communications are not just put everywhere.

The minister also described the consultations as an Opposition-led initiative.

“So to those organisers, does civil society mean Besigye, Muntu, Niringiye and group only? And who doesn’t know their usual rhetoric on our politics, especially after failing to win any new political ground,” Mr Tumwebaze said.
He said that civil society should offer equal platforms to all political actors to provide a balanced menu of policy options to choose from. The Kibaale County legislator also wondered if the NRM was of no consequence to the organisers of the consultations.

“If the meeting was a neutral dialogue convened in the name of citizens, why didn’t other views be sought?”

Meanwhile, Ms Rebecca Kadaga, the Speaker of Parliament, who had been expected to officiate at the end of the consultations, did not honour the invitations although the organisers maintained that she too, just like the President, was invited.