Left to right: FDC Katonga faction leader Erias Lukwago, ANT leader Mugisha Muntu and their NUP counterpart Robert Kyagulanyi in Kampala last month. PHOTO/ MICHAEL KAKUMIRIZI
As the pre-election campaign mood becomes heightened, I thought this week I should write a brief guide on the main political parties.
The guide also serves as an indirect commentary on the state of political parties in Uganda.
What is common to all the political parties listed below is the lack of sophisticated, careful branding and messaging.
Fortunately for the parties, the public chooses to project whatever image or association on them that it wants.
The public identifies them by their party colours and symbols and their main charismatic leaders and activists.
But neither the parties nor their supporters can clearly define what these parties stand for in a conceptual way or how each party is distinguished from the other.
NRM
The National Resistance Movement (NRM) has the broadest view of the country of any political party. This is separate from the fact that it is the ruling party.
With its origins in 1960s pan-Africanism, it is the party more likely than the others to discuss matters outside Uganda’s borders, such as regional security and the need to seek regional markets for Ugandan products.
It is the party that perceives Uganda as being part of a wider regional geopolitical entity, and this entity must be engaged with as a matter of national importance.
In so far that the economic scarcity of the 1970s and 1980s has ended, the NRM can claim to be the party that made this possible through its pragmatic acceptance of Uganda’s structural weaknesses and, therefore, the need to actively court foreign investment to plug the gaps in Uganda’s economic capacity.
The downside is its association with the corruption, nepotism, and gross human rights violations of the last 25 years.
Reliance on the state machinery and benefit from patronage by party chairman and head of State Yoweri Museveni, are probably the strongest uniting factors in the party.
NUP
Most of its energy and thought process is focused on how to get the NRM out of power.
Sympathy has been shown from time to time to the plight of Ugandan domestic workers and security guards in the Middle East.
But most of its preoccupation is with domestic political matters.
Even in the area where it draws its strongest parliamentary-level support, Buganda, it has not been particularly vocal about speaking up for Buganda’s grievances and aspirations.
While it takes pride in projecting a paramilitary image, it has not done much by way of a study of security and intelligence-gathering.
National Unity Platform (NUP), like the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) before it, has benefited greatly from the public sympathy that comes with being persecuted by the NRM state, although in northern Uganda and much of western Uganda, it has yet to stir up a sustained emotional connection.
And NUP, like FDC, faces the FDC’s 2004-2021 contradiction: believing that Uganda is under a brutal dictatorship and yet continuing to actively participate in general elections that it knows or proclaims have already been rigged in advance by NRM.
DP
This party draws from its long, 70-year history with the Catholic Church and civil life, although over the last 20 years, the Catholic religion has lost much of its hold on the public in political terms.
Free and fair elections and freedom from State brutality are now seen as more a priority than giving voice to the Catholic majority.
It has maintained its traditional role as the midwife and wedding flower girl to other parties and remains content with that role.
The arrival on the scene of the People Power movement in 2018 spelled doom for DP, as People Power, later rebranded as the National Unity Platform, took over practically all the political space enjoyed by DP in Buganda.
The memorandum of understanding between the NRM government and the DP’s leadership marked the effective death of DP as a national party.
ANT
Since emerging from FDC, the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) has sought to portray itself as the voice of moderation and principle within the Opposition.
Its main weakness is its failure or inability to recognise the need for strong public visibility and engagement.
It maintains that building grassroots support is more important than populist street activism.
However, even in this regard, ANT has not shown results so far.
It is difficult to pinpoint any part of Uganda where ANT has established a stronghold, either in an ethnic grouping or geographical area.
Its leader, Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu, is arguably the most respected political figure in the country.
This respect and likeability, though, have not translated into a forceful voice and presence on Uganda’s landscape.
Jeema
The Justice Forum (Jeema) party is much like ANT in its low-key positioning.
It has had a peaceful transfer of power at the top of its leadership, comes across as principled, and not much is heard of internal squabbles.
And like ANT, what it lacks is a strong enough public brand recall and marketing.
Since the 2021 General Election, it has fallen off the public radar, most likely because its natural support base has been taken over by the much more visible and assertive NUP – Muslims and the urban downtrodden.
FDC
Every since its split in two in a very public way two years ago, it’s not certain where the official Najjanankumbi wing of the party stands in the political spectrum.
The strong association of FDC with Dr Kizza Besigye means that without him and the activist section of the FDC, the party’s position is ambiguous.
The perception that FDC Najjanankumbi was compromised or bought out by the NRM means that its messaging about restoring democratic rule to Uganda rings hollow to many would-be supporters.
In that way, it is suffering the fate of the Uganda Federal Alliance and DP, which lost their appeal once they became closely identified with NRM.
PFF
This is the core Reform Agenda-Parliamentary Advocacy Forum (Pafo) wing of FDC under a new name, with Besigye as its most recognisable figurehead.
Activism against the excesses of NRM is its main identity and focus.
As with the other Opposition parties, People's Front for Freedom’s (PFF) space in active Opposition to the NRM state has been eaten into by NUP.
The PFF main challenge ahead of the 2026 General Election is to distinguish itself from NUP as the most vocal opponent of the NRM state.
Its best hope of establishing a national reach is with Dr Besigye as its election presidential flagbearer or chief campaign leader.
