Muntu backs Besigye, Mbabazi 2016 contest
FDC president Mugisha Muntu
What you need to know:
Strategy. The FDC president says two Opposition candidates may stop President Museveni from getting the 50 per cent win
Kampala.
FDC president Mugisha Muntu has supported the fronting of two Opposition presidential candidates to take on President Museveni in the 2016 race for the presidency.
Gen Muntu said this would offer the Opposition the best chances of denying Mr Museveni a 50 per cent plus one win for automatic victory.
“There are many people in the NRM who want Mr Museveni to go, Maj Gen Muntu said, adding, “But because of the history, they cannot vote for Dr Kizza Besigye.”
He said there were equally many people in the Opposition who would not vote for Mr Amama Mbabazi were he to be the Opposition’s flag bearer.
Speaking last Friday in Rwashamaire, Ntungamo District, Gen Muntu added that though TDA had not reached consensus, all is not lost. “Now that the TDA has failed, do not think it is over,” he said.
He said the main challenge is to ensure that the eligible voters who abstained from voting in 2011 this time turn up to vote.
The FDC president said given that many of them are young they would most likely vote for the Opposition since the current government has not lived up to their expectations.
Gen Muntu’s remarks come against the backdrop of the failure by The Democratic Alliance – an association of seven Opposition political parties – to reach consensus on a single presidential candidate last week.
Last Friday, some of the members of the TDA – UPC, DP, PPP, one faction of CP – nominated Mr Mbabazi to be the flag bearer.
But FDC members and Ken Lukyamuzi’s CP endorsed Dr Besigye.
An hour before Mr Mbabazi was declared by majority TDA members as preferred flag bearer last Friday, Dr Besigye told the media in Kampala that his side has reservations about Mr Mbabazi’s commitment to democracy, the rule of law and human rights.
Dr Besigye said Mr Mbabazi while still a senior government official, never spoke out against the injustices some military officials inflicted on many citizens.
Mr Mbabazi’s supporters argue that he was bound by collective responsibility, and thus, could not go against the Cabinet’s position of issues.
