Scanning the squabbles between and amongst opposition parties, it is less likely that the opposition will present a formidable challenge in 2011. UPC and FDC (both members of the inter-party cooperation) are locked in a brawl over the sacking of Hon. John Odit.
All the parties which have appended signatures on the cooperation protocol are unhappy with DP party, which wants to present its own candidate in 2011. They accuse DP of failing to read the public desire for a joint opposition candidate.
And yes, it is very frustrating especially given what it took Kenya's formidable NARC to defeat Moi and later ODM to challenge Mwai Kibaki. But drawing from the same experience, we also realise that the defeat of president Moi and the formidable challenge to Mwai Kibaki was a result of both inter-party cooperation and grassroots sensitisation and mobilisation; a key aspect still lacking in Uganda.
Assuming the 2006 elections were free and fair, the combined electoral results of FDC, DP, UPC, JEEMA and CP would still not have amounted to the defeat of the incumbent. We are yet to see this replicated in 2011 if parties do not outgrow their petty squabbles and set up mechanisms that can check especially electoral malpractices.
Stories of election malpractices are not just numerous but at times sophisticated. In one scenario it is said women were organised into SACCOs, given loans and told that they would only be required to pay back if a certain candidate lost. Their role was therefore to ensure that the said candidate did not lose. In other places it was double voting, fictitious polling stations, the list is endless. Then amazingly, illiterate voters are told that inside the ballot box is a computer that reads whom they have voted for. The poor voters are therefore scared stiff about the possibility of being discovered to have taken a person's gift and voted another.
Then there is the long term fallacy surrounding the institution of the Special Interest groups like the women's seat. Till today, many sections of the population (including some opposition members of parliament) are convinced that women's political affirmative action seat is President Museveni's creation. Agreed, Museveni takes credit for having embraced the global call for affirmative action without which perhaps the beneficiaries would still only be lobbying. What needs to be corrected especially amongst the rural folk is the perception that without Museveni, the provision for interest groups will cease.
Currently, such information can be disseminated through community radios but given the poverty and rural people's schedules, very few of them have the privilege to listen to these local radios. That is why as parties move into political protocols, they should equally form grassroots party structures that can be used to mobilise and sensitise communities. The EU Election Observer Mission recommended that there should be comprehensive civic education before the 2011 elections, but two years to go, there is no effort towards that goal.
Aware that election rigging is facilitated by a less informed populace, government has deliberately decided to be silent about civic education. Come 2011 all the stolen wealth will be used to confuse the already illiterate and poverty stricken electorate and with or without a political coalition, your guess is as good as mine.
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It seems like these are problems within the leadership in the opposition. There is a lot of in fighting at the leadership level. For example as usual DP is already sounding confused; first they can't make up their mind and if they do they start by giving credit to NRM. I read somewhere Mao - the likely DP presidential candidate - said the only thing wrong with NRM prescriptions for Uganda's problems is the side-effects their are causing. Whatever he means, it sure sounds like Mao is really an NRMer masquarading as DP opposition.
More to the point it was not or has never been the responsibility of the "ignorant" electorate to educate themselves on the electoral process. That responsibility rightfully belongs to the leaders in the opposition to mobilise and educate the electorate. Even in the USA where the computer technology is widespread voters still need to be familiarised and educated on working the technology which is constantly changing if it is not poorly designed. It is the responsibility of the incompetent opposition to the work. Politics is a sales job where the customers, the voters, the ones you ignorantly call ignorant, are always right, unless of course you are a despot.
The opposition is supposed to make sure the all important voters don't get disenfranchised, or robbed of their birth right to chose who should run their affairs. They do this by engaging the voters through education at the grassroots and making sure the unbiased electoral laws are enacted and adhered to. Dictatorship don't serve out power on a silver platter.
I think the only people showing political illiteracy or ignorance are people who write this meaningless meandering drivel. It is one thing to know how to read and write, but it is also another to write something that is relevant, substantive and really makes some sense. Women are getting blind sided by NRM tokenism that only pads seats in the socalled parliament, of course to the advantage of NRM. The dictatorship isn't leaving any stone unturned.