By Aggrey Baba
Gen Salim Saleh has proposed reforms to Uganda’s electoral system, including legislation to guarantee the independence of the Electoral Commission (EC), regulate campaign expenditure and strengthen Parliament’s oversight of elections.
The proposals are contained in a 137-page working paper on a proposed Consociational Democracy Agreement seen by Mulengera News, developed by Saleh himself in collaboration with his personal secretary Professor Ogenga Otunnu, which identifies credible elections and institutional accountability as critical to restoring confidence in the political system of the country.
The document was reportedly supplied to all opposition party representatives who attended the recent political parties summit in Jinja, to go and consult their members before returning to Jinja for further engagements about the same, this publication has learnt.
General Saleh wants Parliament to enact legislation establishing an independent EC, with transparent procedures for appointing it’s leadership and safeguards to guarantee the leaders’ security of tenure.
He also proposes laws to limit campaign expenditure, arguing that the high cost of elections gives wealthy candidates and politically powerful individuals an unfair advantage over those with fewer financial resources.
The proposed restrictions are intended to make political competition more equitable by reducing the influence of money in determining who can effectively participate in elections.
The first brother further recommends a parliamentary inquiry into electoral reforms, with particular attention to EC’s independence and the regulation of campaign financing.
He also proposes cross-party parliamentary working groups to examine electoral reform, land grievances, regional development disparities, social justice and other issues that continue to generate political tensions.
Under the proposed arrangement, NRM and willing opposition parties would negotiate a parliamentary cooperation protocol, publicly setting out how they intend to work together on national unity legislation.
Political disagreements, according to the proposal, should be resolved through parliamentary debate rather than procedural manipulation.
Saleh also wants Parliament to consider constitutional amendments, where necessary, to entrench cooperation, inclusion, transparency, accountability and power-sharing principles, making them less vulnerable to reversal by a simple parliamentary majority, where the NRM now holds the biggest number of MPs.
Another proposed accountability measure would require parliamentary leaders from different political parties to jointly commission and publish a State of National Unity report at the beginning of every parliamentary session, a report which would assess progress on political inclusion, accountability and the implementation of agreed commitments.
The proposal, however, cautions against turning political cooperation into another arrangement through which elites distribute government positions and public resources among themselves while leaving ordinary citizens outside the decision-making process.
The proposed electoral reforms carry wider political significance because they seek to address not only the technical management of elections but also the imbalance of power between political competitors. By targeting the independence of the EC, campaign financing and parliamentary oversight, Gen Saleh’s proposals touch on some of the institutional questions that have repeatedly fuelled disputes over the credibility of elections in Uganda. Their practical impact, however, would depend on whether the political actors expected to negotiate the proposed settlement are willing to accept reforms that could also constrain their own influence.
The recommendations form part of a wider proposed political settlement intended to address historical grievances and reduce the influence of ethnic, religious and tribal identities in political competition. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
