How DP lost grip on Buganda region

When 11 legislators last August announced they had defected from the Democratic Party (DP) to join National Unity Platform (NUP), it was impossible to believe that their decision will politically injure Uganda’s oldest political party.

All the legislators who defected to NUP are from the central region.

Going by the current political trends, it is now evident that their departure left a vacuum as the party only managed to secure a few seats in the just concluded parliamentary polls. 
Although DP had 15 MPs in the 10th Parliament, this number has reduced to only nine, of which seven are from the central region.

For example in Masaka District the party currently has only three legislators. Many district council positions were swept by NUP.

Some of DP candidates in the sub-region like the deputy party president, Mr Fred Mukasa Mbidde, who contested for the newly created Nyendo-Mukungwe Constituency in Masaka City and the party’s treasurer, Ms Babirye Kabanda, who vied for Masaka City woman member of Parliament, also lost despite declaring their support for NUP presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi in lieu of their party’s flag bearer Mr Norbert Mao.
These were not the only DP party leaders who backed Mr Kyagulanyi’s candidature.

DP leaders in Kyotera, Kalungu, Bukomansimbi, and Lwengo districts also did the same.

According to Mr Stephen Bonny Kasujja, a former DP elder in Masaka District, they chose to work closely with Mr Kyagulanyi because the top party leadership looked disorganised ahead of the general elections.

“We have been supporting DP even before some of its current leaders were born, but we decided to join a new party (NUP) that looked promising and serious to take power,” he says
Mr Kasujja says President Museveni seems to have tactfully infiltrated DP and started using it to further his political agenda.

“We do not regret defecting to NUP because after the recent elections, no one can judge us wrong because no Opposition party in Uganda has ever given Museveni a serious challenge like NUP has done,” he says

Mr Henry Balintuma Kasiwukira, another former DP elder in Lwengo District, says: “DP will be no more in the coming years especially here in Buganda because even those who had underrated NUP have started to appreciate its strength.” he says, adding: “The only way to defeat Museveni is to uproot him right from local councils and spread further, something NUP has done perfectly.”

Mr Michael Mulindwa Nakumusana, the newly elected mayor of Nyendo –Mukungwe Municipality, who was formally a DP leader, says many Ugandans no longer have hope in old political parties, saying they have supported them for a long time, but have not made any meaningful political impact.

DP reacts
Mr Okoler Opio Lo Amanu, the DP spokesperson, says despite their loss in Buganda, DP is still a party to reckon with.
“It is not only the DP that has lost the region even NRM has completely lost in Buganda, but that one does not mean that the party is dead.  DP has stood the test of time and you cannot just write it off,” he says.
“People just shifted allegiance to NUP, but they are still members of DP. We shall strategise and convince all our people to return home,” Mr Anamu adds