By Mike Ssegawa
If it was a football.game, NRM beat Opposition by 9:0 in Tuesday’s East African Legislative Assembly elections.
It was a proof that Mr Museveni’s party NRM was the dominant force in Uganda’s politics today and that opposition are a hapless lot with little they can do to change the status quo if the ruling party wasn’t gracious.
On Tuesday, the candidates for EALA that NRM agreed on, were all voted in. These were Mukasa Fred Mbidde (DP), Akol Rose Okulu (NRM), Mathias Kasamba (NRM),
Mary Mugyenyi (NRM), Paul Musamali Mwasa (NRM), Dennis Namara (NRM), George Steven Odongo (NRM), Christopher Opoka Okumu (UPC), Suzan Nakawuki (Independent).
The three opposition candidates Mbidde, Nakawuki and Opoka are seen having got their nods from the relationship they enjoy with the ruling party.
The EALA election also exposed the biggest opposition party FDC as a wrecked ship without a captain…and if he’s there, he’s wounded on the battlefield.
FDC fielded two candidates in a show of confusion pitting the party chairman and Secretary General on opposing sides.
Sensing danger, Mugisha Muntu would attempt to remove Ingrid Turinawe’s name from the race without full knowledge of the law and process, which embarrassed the party further.
It turned out Turinawe’s name on the ballot paper was an awakening for the opposition. It is something to think about future strategies.
The country’s divisions are sharp and deep.
From MPs who turned parliament into a market while heckling Ingrid Turinawe in the most uncivilized manner unbefitting the House, to apologists saying they’ve served the queen of defiance her right dose of medicine!
On the other hand, the reception received by Mukasa Mbidde, Nakawuki and Opoka, candidates from parties seen as friendly to NRM, was deafening. It is said that Museveni has infiltrated the opposition in a manner that leaves little to imagination that Uganda is headed to a one party state. Even the little group that follows Kizza Besigye such as Turinawes and are said to oppose Museveni’s governance style, are an endangered species as they’ve been sidelined in the political discourse of the country using the state’s means of coercion as well as political patronage.
In the end, NRM is running the show unabated, unless the few remaining opposition elements, reorganize to offer the country another alternate voice.
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