By Mulengera Reporters
Using their Monday weekly news conference, the FDC party has given its views on electoral reforms and scorned the NRM government for the reform areas AG William Byaruhanga tabled in Parliament last week. Addressing reporters at Najjanankumbi, deputy publicist John Kikonyogo highlighted 11 areas the party would like to see addressed to positively impact on the quality of elections we have in Uganda.
One of these is the proposal to abolish the office of RDC or in the alternative mainstream it under Public Service Commission so that RDCs, who have previously been accused of using public office to partisanly participate in politics, are properly de-politicized.
The FDC man also demanded disbandment of current EC so that a new one is recruited through a more transparent process involving the public in the preliminary stages with the Judicial Service Commission taking charge and presenting names of the best-assessed candidates to the President for formal appointment. The party hopes through public hearings and participation, the country can be assured of having men and women of integrity at the EC. Impartiality of the EC, he maintained, is very important.
Kikonyogo also claimed the proposal for soldiers to elect days in advance is aimed at diminishing the popularity of his FDC party which he said has always been winning in army barracks. He said ordinarily the army shouldn’t have any role in elections as that is the mandate of police that is charged with conventional policing. He also demanded restrictions to be imposed on the President making it hard for him to access money from BoU or any other MDA and use it for campaign purposes during campaign period.
He also accused the EC of tolerating appointment of political party activists to serve as polling officials. He also demanded the patriotism secretariat being disbanded and its mandate re-assigned to the Ministry of Education. POMA should be reviewed and the Police Act to permit more space for political assemblies and expression for parties to campaign meaningfully. That the procurement of electoral materials should be made more transparent with parties and media representatives being involved from the very beginning. That restoration of term limits should be part of the reforms and entrenching the same in the Constitution.
The FDC is also protesting the banning of cameras and phones within the voting area, EC having power to gazette restricted voting areas; prohibiting political parties from having political linkages to independent presidential candidates and forming alliances with them. All in all, the FDC dismisses William Byaruhanga’s proposals as nothing but something aimed at facilitating the rigging of 2021 elections in favor of the incumbent NRM party.
