Evelyn Lirri
3 August 2008
When opposition party, Forum for Democratic Change, (FDC) held its second National Council (NC) meeting last week, top on the agenda was a self assessment - taking stock of its achievements over the years, weaknesses and what it needed to do in the future.
The party has over recent days been rocked by increased internal agitation, especially from its Buganda Caucus members who want two key positions of fallen colleagues reserved for Baganda.
FDC President Dr Kizza Besigye's address at the NC did not cover these concerns specifically though he pointed to general growth in strength across the country. He said that the political ground has been more favourable for the party, especially in the central, western and southern regions where the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) enjoyed a lot of support.
Dr Besigye said that despite the hostile political environment, FDC has, since the last general elections in 2006 managed to register a number of successes. "We increased our strength in Parliament and in the local governments, launched FDC party cards, built capacity of our leadership and through various training programmes," Dr Besigye said.
The party has not more than 40 members of Parliament out of the 289 directly elected MPs. Dr Besigye also informed members that the party has, since the last elections, increased its international networks, successfully challenged some obnoxious laws and acquired its own headquarter premises.
But for a party that has lost one presidential bid, Dr Besigye had lost another election before in 2001, when he contested as an individual merit candidate and two election petitions in the country's highest court, these achievements are not enough to guarantee it victory in 2011 when the next general elections will be held. Dr Besigye admits weaknesses within the party which he says are mostly in the districts. It is these weaknesses that he brought to the attention of the NC members with the hope that they would be internalised and addressed before the general elections.
"From my visits to districts I have observed that nearly all those that I visited so far lacked crystallised plans to guide their actions," he said. Dr Besigye also accused party district executives of doing little to fund-raise for mobilisation for the party and still want to get funding from the headquarters.
He also said that the party was slow in implementing its Strategic Plan 2006-11, largely because of complacency and weak performance of its leaders, financial constraints, and a hostile political environment. Like all the others, political parties seem to be strong at the top but weak at the grassroots where the majority of the electorate is based.
The popularity of FDC for example has been strongest among the urban and educated minority yet the majority of the electorate are in the rural-based. And one of the biggest problems the party is facing is perhaps organisational structure. This is one task that Dr Besigye says should be accomplished as soon as possible.
"The exercise of building FDC structures that we are embarking on is easily the single most important step in preparing the vehicle that will increase and carry our support to the needed victory," he observed.
To execute the task of setting up structures, the party is proposing what they have called a Poling Area Branch (PAB) whose role will largely be to ensure that they win elections at their various polling stations. The PAB officials will also manage the voter's roll, compile a register of FDC supporters, undertake recruitment drives through door-to-door canvassing and monitor the electoral process especially on the poling day.
However, unresolved internal wrangles involving some members of the party threatens to undermine FDC's efforts to put these plans into action. The latest threat to the party arises from a decision by the party leadership to replace its former chairman, the late Dr Sulaiman Kiggundu, later this year when it holds its delegates conference.
Dr Kiggundu passed away in June this year in South Africa. The NC meeting resolved that Mr John Butime, the Vice Chairman for western Uganda, acts as the national chairman until the party holds its delegates conference.
The Buganda Caucus of the party, however, wants the position to be filled by a Muganda since Dr Kiggundu was also a Muganda. "It is our view that, in order to maintain cohesion in the Party, the Position of chairman remains reserved for Buganda and must be so filled during the NC sitting on 26 July, 2008," the caucus wrote to Dr Besigye, a day after the NC meeting.
However, FDC spokesperson Mr Wafula Oguttu, told journalists this week that the position of chairperson of the party was open to everyone. "The position of chairperson may not necessarily be for a Muganda," Mr Oguttu said.
But Kampala FDC Chairman Livingstone Kizito said the Buganda Caucus will continue to lobby for the position to be filled by a Muganda. "We are lobbying for the position because we agreed it is for us [Baganda]," Mr Kizito said.
Sources within the party said the Buganda Caucus, angered by the party's failure to grant them, by consensus, the positions of chairman and vice chairman at the NC meeting were starting a slow withdrawal from party activities as a sign of protest. The NC agreed to keep Tooro politician John Butiime as acting chairman until the delegates conference.
Read comments. Write your own.
Copyright © 2008 The Monitor. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
