The leader of the National Unity Platform Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine has told his fellow members of the opposition that as long as Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is still the president of Uganda, Ugandans will never see a free and fair election.
The former Presidential candidate 2021 made these statements while opening a two-day workshop on Electoral and Constitutional Reforms organized by the Leader of the Opposition on Thursday at Commonwealth Hotel in Munyonyo. He said that whenever the members of the opposition gather, wonderful ideas are formed but unfortunately, they are not put into practice because the regime fears and fights them.
“You can be sure ladies and gentlemen that all the beautiful ideas that we share don’t go beyond these beautiful rooms; we discuss them here and because the regime feels threatened by them; they usually end here. So that reality should remind all of us that our first and main duty should be removing the Museveni dictatorship,” he said.
“Since 2005, the regime has applied various tactics to suffocate the opposition and to limit their ability to engage with the electorates. Opposition candidates have been intimidated, their rights have been violated and have been subjected to military violence.One lesson we have learnt from the experiences of those who challenged Museveni before and from our own experience is that for as long as the Museveni regime is in power, Uganda will never experience a fair electoral process or even uphold constitutional governance. This regime sustains itself in power by denying its opponents any political fairness because Gen Museveni’s government has intentionally obstructed the opposition’s proposals,” he said.
In the same line, the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, Mathias Mpuuga also revealed that the same proposals that they are doing now have always been there. He however asserted that the opposition in and outside Parliament needs to find the necessary motivation and drive to make these areas for reform rallying points for the entire country and all stakeholders in Uganda’s democratic process.
“We need to summon the traditional and non-traditional bases into this conversation. It should become a matter of public duty and burden like most other citizenry obligations, not a preserve of politicians and their traditional allies,” he said.
Mpuuga added that it is very likely that some of the emerging conversations sound old to many veteran actors like himself but the theatre and platform the opposition seeks to occupy and influence has enrolled new actors and goers; bringing with them new profiles and aspirations.
“We need to find the imperative to re-orient ourselves, and undertake deliberate learning and unlearning in the coming months, as we seek to expand and enlist new actors and the changing mode of meeting our shared aspiration. The current state of the country’s rule of law and constitutionalism has occasioned wasteful expenditure of public resources and exacerbated political tensions, just awaiting a trigger to explode. Therefore, these reforms are urgently required to shape Uganda’s political landscape.”
Prof. Joe Oloka-Onyango who was the keynote speaker also noted that constitutional reforms cannot be top-down (They must come from the people). He also encouraged the opposition that people must force this process and it has to be a collective struggle for fundamental change.
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