FDC to hold national demo ahead of swearing in
Forum for democratic change women leader Ingrid Turinawe (L) addressing the media yesterday at the party headquarters as the party secretary general Nathan Nandala Mafabi (R) looks on. PHOTO BY MICHAEL KAKUMIRIZI
What you need to know:
Continued defiance. Party says the demos will be part of the earlier demonstrations launched against the February election results.
Kampala. Opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) yesterday announced plans to hold country-wide demonstrations ahead of the May 12 presidential inauguration.
President Museveni won a fifth-elective presidential term beating FDC’s Dr Kizza Besigye who came second in the February 18 presidential polls but FDC opposes the results and has called for an independent audit of the same.
FDC press secretary Ssemujju Nganda said at the party’s weekly press conference that the May 5 demonstration, which will involve a walk from the FDC party headquarters in Najjanakumbi to Nakivubo Blue Primary School is part of the wider “Free My Vote” campaign launched shortly after the February 18 polls.
FDC conducts weekly prayers as part of the campaign.
“As a party we have decided to hold a demonstration on May 5, 2016, a national demonstration to demand for an independent audit,” Mr Ssemujju said. In 2011, Dr Besigye’s return from Nairobi, Kenya, where he had sought treatment after sustaining injuries in an earlier protest, coincided with the presidential inauguration which hampered traffic on Entebbe Road.
While he did not give the specifics, Mr Ssemujju also hinted on more such activities in the coming days if government did not respond to their demands.
The party yesterday issued a letter signed by Harold Kaijja, the FDC Deputy Secretary General in charge of administration. By press time it was not clear if Police had received it.
However, Col (Rtd) Shaban Bantariza, the deputy executive director of the Uganda Media Centre, advised FDC to move on stating that the elections are over.
“They (FDC) will not be allowed to do anything that interferes with the swearingin, their motives for the demonstrations are wrong and the state will not allow this,” Mr Bantariza said.
On FDC’s call for an independent audit of election results, Mr Bantariza said it “has no legal basis,” adding that “apart from that, what will happen if NRM refutes these results from the independent audit, what then will happen?”
