FDC campaigns without candidate: Tracing trail of candidate withdrawals
FDC members led by secretary general Nathan Nandala Mafabi campaign for their candidate Adyaka Nalibe despite her saying she is no longer interested in the Kaabong District Woman MP seat. COURTESY PHOTO
Until about nine days ago, Ms Adyaka Nalibe was little known outside Kaabong. Despite her having been nominated as the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) candidate in the race for the Kaabong District Woman MP seat, even within her own party, many members had never heard of her. Not anymore.
Most FDC members have now heard of the woman who had been nominated to fill the seat that fell vacant after Ms Lily Akello quit to contest in the newly-created Karenga District.
Ms Adyaka announced her withdrawal from the contest by way of a September 9 letter.
“This notice is hereby made to unequivocally withdraw my candidature from the race and I don’t wish to contest in the aforementioned position and that my name should be struck off the list of nominated candidates to contest for the position of Kaabong District Woman Member of Parliament,” her letter reads in part.
FDC has since rejected the move which would hand the seat to the NRM candidate, Ms Christine Tubo Nankwang.
In a September 15 letter, FDC secretary general Nathan Nandala Mafabi warned the returning officer of Kaabong against upholding Ms Adyaka’s withdrawal, saying the Electoral Commission (EC) would in that event be sued for at least Shs200 million.
“This candidate was sponsored by FDC party under Section 10 of the Parliamentary Elections Act 2010. Therefore, section 19(2) and (3) cannot be applied in isolation. Note, we are under multiparty dispensation,” he wrote.
Section 19 of the amended Parliamentary Elections Act, 2005, states that a nominated candidate can withdraw his or her nomination at any time, before polling day.
“As a party, we object to her withdrawal. The party can nominate a candidate in absentia and carry out campaigns without a candidate. Ref to Dr Kizza Besigye case of 2006,” Mr Nandala further wrote.
In the spirit of the letter, Mr Mafabi, who is also the Budadiri East MP, left Mbale for Karamoja on Thursday to continue campaigning for Ms Adyaka ahead of the September 26 polls.
“She is party property. We are going to campaign and guard the vote there, even if she doesn’t want to campaign with us,” he said.
Old story
Cases such as Adyaka’s are not new to FDC. They have been happening since 2006 when Uganda returned to a multiparty dispensation. Save in the case of the Mbale Municipality seat, which FDC grabbed back through Mr Jack Wamanga Wamai following the resignation from Parliament of Mr Wilfred Kajeke, it has always been an advantage for NRM whenever an FDC or Opposition candidate pulls out of a race or resigns.
Mr Kajeke, who had been Youth Representative for Eastern Uganda between 2001 and 2006, before being elected MP for Mbale Municipality on an FDC ticket in 2006, announced in July 2009 that he would quit Parliament at the end of that calendar year because the Executive and government had failed in the fight against corruption.
Ceding ground to NRM
Early in 2005, when Ms Winnie Byanyima resigned from Parliament to concentrate on her job as director for women, gender and development at the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, it was NRM’s John Arimpa Kigyagi who won the April by-election. FDC has never been able to recapture the seat.
In January 2006, the FDC candidate for Buyanja County in Kibaale District, Mr George William Birungi, withdrew from the race, leaving NRM’s Matia Kasaija unopposed; In January 2011, Mr Biryaba B. Serapio pulled out of the Ndorwa West constituency race leaving NRM’s David Bahati unopposed; and in December 2017, FDC’s Kenneth Kagundu Kabombora pulled out of the Ruhama County race handing the advantage to the NRM.
In September 2018, the FDC leaning candidate in the Sheema North race, Mr Felix Mujuni, withdrew from the race amidst unclear circumstances, but the initiative was once against handed to the NRM just like the case would be two months later in Busia where the Opposition candidate, Mr Hasubi Deogratias Njoki, threw in the towel ahead of the polls in the LC5 by-election.
Common trend
Save for the case of Serapio, who said he had quit the Ndorwa race for family and personal reasons, most of those who have pulled out of races have done so on grounds that FDC had not been supportive enough.
Mr Birungi cited failure to receive appropriate funding from FDC as the reason for pulling out of the Buyanja County race in 2006 and in December 2017, Mr Kabombora pulled out of the Ruhaama contest because he had failed to raise Shs3 million for nominations.
Last week, Ms Adyaka raised similar complaints, accusing the party of neglecting her and supplying hot air whenever it came to issues around funding her campaign.
“Since I started campaigning, my party has not been helpful to me. I only received Shs500,000 as support from them. Even my campaign posters have not been delivered, so I don’t have money to proceed,” she told Sunday Monitor in Karamoja.
However, Mr Mafabi dismissed her claims.
“During the general elections, we gave her money and posters, but she refused to spend the money. When the by-election came, we changed strategy. We handed the money to someone else and we have ensured that money is spent on what the campaign needs,” he said.
Mr Mafabi adds that the party has since the 2011 general election been working to facilitate all its flag bearers in the best way they can.
“We don’t neglect our members. Since 2011, we have been paying nomination fees for all our candidates and printing their campaign posters. We try to provide as much support as possible because we are keen on growing the party’s membership in the public and in Parliament,” he says.
Candidates’ claims that FDC always leaves them at sea, however, a bit strange given that the party is not known to have much in terms of resources. The claims become stranger given that the NRM too has never been able to bankroll all its flag bearers. It only makes token contributions and leaves the rest to the candidates.
Bribery or disorganisation?
Whenever an Opposition candidate pulls out of a race, it becomes a case of pointing in the direction of a known witch when a mysterious death occurs on a village. The NRM always comes under fire. It is accused of dangling jobs and cash at them.
One cannot really blame the Opposition for that as Mr Museveni has over time come across as one bent on implementing a grand scheme to wipe out an Opposition which he has always said is “useless”.
Early in his days in power, he gave jobs to powerful Opposition figures, including Dr Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere, Prof Yoweri Kyesimira, John Ssebaana Kizito and Robert Kitariko; Mayanja-Nkangi, Stanislaus Okurut, Edward Kakonge, Gen Moses Ali and Andrew Kayiira in the name of formation of a government of national unity.
The net was later cast wider to catch Dr Speciosa Wandira Kazibwe, Mr Gerald Ssendaula, Kafumbe Mukasa, Maria Mutagamba, Prof Gilbert Bukenya who were taken in from DP. Other figures include Aggrey Awori, Daniel Omara Atubo, Jacob Oulanyah, Badru Wegulo, Osinde Wangor, Henry Mayega, Betty Amongi, Erick Sakwa, Christopher Kibanzanga, Alex Onzima, Beti Kamya, and Rubaramira Ruranga.
Those job offers left the parties and individuals weaker than before. Little wonder that nothing came of their efforts when Ssemogerere and John Ssebaana Kizito later challenged Mr Museveni for the top job.
DP, FDC and UPC were further weakened when Mohammed Baswari Kezaala, who was the national chairman of DP, was handed a job as Uganda’s deputy ambassador to India and Beatrice Anywar and Robert Kanusu were handed yellow T-shirts.
In an interview at the party headquarters in Najjanankumbi, FDC spokesperson Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda claimed that Ms Adyaka had secretly met Mr Museveni in Moroto and been offered a hefty envelope.
“We are investigating reports that [President] Museveni bribed our candidate with Shs1.2b to withdraw from the race,” Mr Ssemujju said.
The figure quoted sounds outlandish given that Ms Adyaka is not FDC bigwig Salaamu Musumba or Ingrid Turinawe, but it might not be too farfetched for one to say that the NRM could have influenced her decision as it would stand to benefit most from such a development.
It would not only kill a prospective rising Opposition politician, but also set back FDC’s efforts to bolster its numbers and make inroads in the Karamoja sub-region.
Mr Richard Todwong, the deputy secretary general of the NRM, denies allegations of bribery.
“We have not been in touch with that candidate and I doubt that the teams on the ground established contact with her. I think it (decision to withdraw) has to do more with FDC than with us,” Mr Todwong said on Thursday.
Mr Nandala Mafabi believes that talking Opposition candidates out of races is part of a scheme to kill parties.
“It is deliberate. Mr Museveni said that he will have finished the Opposition by 2021. That (bribery) of Opposition candidates is one of the methods he is using,” he says.
This is, however, beyond the machinations of the NRM or the disorganisation of the Opposition. It speaks to the moral fabric of a political class that is increasingly becoming inward looking and self-centred.
Prof Paul Wangoola, a former member of the National Consultative Council (NCC) which briefly worked as Uganda’s Parliament shortly after the ouster of president Idi Amin, argues that it is down to the prevailing political and economic situation.
He argues that big businesses have been concentrated in the hands of foreigners, leaving Ugandans with no money-minting opportunities, except by joining government and dabbling in corruption.
Under such circumstances, the former Makerere University don argues, politics ceases being about services to the people, but satisfying individual politicians.
“Small businesses are heavily taxed so you can’t make money. So now the issue is how to position yourself around the President so that you also get something. People no longer aspire to join politics in order to serve their people. They do so to get some money. Going to the highest bidder is in the circumstances natural,” he says.
But Mr Todwong, who once warned that corruption was making the NRM very unpopular, defends the party, saying it is not responsible for the choices that some political actors make.
“Accusations will always be there, but you cannot blame everything on the NRM. Some are individual decisions that have nothing to do with the NRM,” he says.
Individual decisions, yes, but ones that could have been made with a little nudging from you guessed who.
