With just a few months to the expiry of tenure of the commissioners of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has warned President Yoweri Museveni against appointing his cronies, hell bent at ensuring his consolidation in power.
According FDC spokesperson Ibrahim Semujju Nganda, the new there was need for an independent and impartial EC that is not answerable to the President “but is in place for the good of the country and its people.”
“It is high time Ugandans are given chance to participate in every electoral reform that is to take place in their country,” Semujju Nganda said while addressing a press conference at the FDC party headquarters in Najjanankumbi.
He emphasised that the public should be involved in the nomination of candidates and even the voting, giving an example of Kenya.
“This country is not Museveni’s that he can decide who is to lead the Electoral Commission,” said the FDC spokesperson, adding that Museveni has managed to manipulate all the electoral commissions that have existed from the time he assumed office in 1986.
“All these commissions have been able to let Museveni stay in power even after losing the elections,” Semujju Nganda said, before lashing out at the EC chairman Eng. Badru Kiggundu who, he said, was complicit in ensuring that Mr Museveni won the 2016 elections.
“All that Badru Kiggundu has done is to let Museveni win the past elections, an act that infringes on the rights of the Ugandan people,” he said.
The FDC spokesperson also said there was urgent need for the amendment of a law to create an independent electoral commission. “The current EC is not independent at all and all Museveni did was he just brought an amendment to change the name of the electoral body to the ‘Independent Electoral Commission, which to him, was a change of the commission into an independent one,” he said.
He also attacked the EC, saying it had failed to comply with the electoral laws, resulting in the high number of MPs being thrown out of parliament.
“Non-compliance of the Electoral Commission towards the Constitution makes it not credible; it (EC) even verifies members with no qualifications and announces losers as winners,” Semujju said, adding that the FDC was holding a series of meetings to forge a way of countering Mr Museveni’s nomination process, ahead of the EC expiry of the commissioners’ mandate in November this year.
“There is an urgent need for the formation of an independent body to manage the electoral process of this country and with all these shortcomings, the FDC is warning the president against naming a commission that satisfies his needs,” Semujju Nganda said.
