By Stephen Kalema
Social Democratic Party (SDP) president Michael Mabike and Peoples Development Party (PDP) president Dr. Abed Bwanika have joined Democratic Party (DP) to form a coalition.
The announcement was made by DP President General Norbert Mao during a press conference held at City House in Kampala. Mao said opposition has been in endless wrangles and disunited for a long time which has cost them victories against President Museveni.
“Since disorganisation has cost us victories for the past years, DP and the other two party leaders, Mabike and Bwanika, have agreed to form a single political block which will lead this struggle to get off President Museveni off power,” said Mao.
He added that all the leaders in this union are willing to do whatever it takes even if it takes dying.
“We are ready to sacrifice whatever we have so long as it will lead us to the crown. We have done this following several studies and we are sure that it will work, since the three parties have the same ultimate goals,” Mao.
This coalition of the three parties follows a comment made by the Executive Director of Oxfam International Winnie Byanyima last week in Mbarara district that opposition will never defeat the current regime if it is still disorganized.
“I am unhappy with the divisions in opposition, I’m really depressed, and why can’t we come together? We don’t need to divide ourselves and lose opportunities, lets come together, let us leave our small world of am of this religion etc,” Ms Byanyima said during her thanksgiving ceremony in Nyamitanga Division, Mbarara.
Dr. Bwanika, one of the key planners in this coalition said that by taking away all egos, all parties agreed that the beauty to deliver the people of Uganda out of the bondage of dictatorship, a coalition had to be formed.
“We have agreed that working together is the only option the opposition has, Ugandans have suffered for long time, this is the time to deliver what we have always promised Ugandans,” said Bwanika.
Bwanika added that DP will be leading political party in this coalition, in accordance to the laws that govern political parties in Uganda “We have a legal team and a Political Action Committee (PAC) which are going to design our road-map to deliver the people of Uganda and cause regime change to acquire the power that we desire,” said Bwanika.
The three leaders agreed also to come out with a unified electoral platform under one body “We are going to agree and come out with a unified leadership where we will select one presidential candidate for the coming general elections, so in a due course we shall hold a signing ceremony of Memorandum of Understanding so that we work objectively in the laws,” added Bwanika.
Mabike called this move a historical one to remove the current regime “This is our historical mission and we are ready to take this government off and rescue people of Uganda from this bad government, we have agreed that in order to meet our mission, we must first organize our slaves,” said Mabike.
However, Mao said this coalition will not deter the DP reunion Caravan which is going to start from Jinja this year then to Kampala “We are in the time of organisations, I call upon every DP member to come out and join us, we are not here to break but we are to build. We will not be intimidated, we are ready for any style to remove Museveni,” said Mao.
On the issue of involving other political parties such as Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Mao said that PAC and other top leaders of this alliance will keep engaging them.
“This is a nucleus of a bigger political block, we are committed to reach out to every opposition political party to join us,” Mao said.
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