DP wrangles deepen as Mao disregards party forms

KAMPALA- The perennial bickering in the Opposition Democratic Party (DP) has taken a new twist with party president, Mr Norbert Mao describing electoral materials distributed by the party’s national organising secretary, Mr Sulaiman Kidandala as fake.

DP grassroots elections were expected to be conducted from January 30 to February 3, but in some districts, the exercise has not yet started due to disagreements over the distribution of electoral materials .

Although one party faction says it is Mr Kidandala who mandated to oversee the printing and distribution of electoral materials, another faction insists it is the duty of the party secretary general, Mr Gerald Siranda.

In an executive order dated February 9, Mr Mao directed executive committee members, branch and sub-county branch executive committee members to disregard all registration forms being distributed by Mr Kidandala referring to them as ‘counterfeits’.

Mr Mao said that proper party registers should be compiled in line with the party National Executive Committee (NEC). He said in the directive that the registers should be authenticated by the constituency executive committee and forwarded to the district committee for delivery to the party headquarters.

“The only authentic materials for registration of members and the declaration of returns of branch elections are those issued by the party headquarters .For avoidance of doubt, the forms are white in colour and bear the party seal,” Mr Mao said.

He said tha all party branch and sub-county leaders should to abide by his directive and disregard the green forms being distributed by Mr Kidandala and his clique.

“These counterfeit forms are being printed and distributed by the organising secretary alongside a handful of party officials without official authorisation,” he said.

The party president said that branches that disobey his directive risk cancellation of their registers, returns, and their delegates may not be accredited for the party delegates conference slated for March in Gulu District.

“An extraordinary NEC meeting will sit on February 14 to review the situation and ensure compliance with its directives,” Mr Mao said

Mr Mao’s executive order comes at a time when Mr Kidandala is traversing the country to deliver electoral materials to party members to conduct grassroots elections.

In an interview on Monday, Mr Kidandala said Mr Mao had overstepped his mandate to stop him from distributing electoral materials.

He said he was acting within the party constitution and members from different parts of the country are going on with elections using the green forms printed by his office.

 Mr Kidandala said that several districts are already through with village level elections and are proceeding with parish, sub-county and constituency level elections.

“DP  is a party that follows the law ,we don’t lead or do things by decrees, the constitution is clear with party positions and responsibilities ,it is a pity that the party president is going ahead to issues such ’ decrees,’’ he said. 

DP’s Legal Advisor  ,Mr Samuel Muyizi, said Article33(e) of DP constitution  mandates the party national organising secretary  to organise internal elections and oversee l the entire electoral process ,adding that whatever Mr Kidandala  is doing is within the law.

He said Mr Mao does not have the powers to interfere in the party electoral process for simple issues like forms which   not have party seal.

“We don’t have any standing regulations of which forms the organising secretary should use in the electoral process. We have used exercise books before. The issue is supposed to be on how the process is handled, is it conducted by the rightful office and that is the office of the organising secretary,  but not which papers or forms are used and we have advised him[Kidandala] not to  let anyone seize his powers because this will be unconstitutional,” he said.

[email protected]