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NO WAY: Tumushabe addresses journalists
yesterday |
By Fortunate Ahimbisibwe
REFORM Agenda yesterday said it would
not register as a political party.
The political pressure group,
which recently said it would register, yesterday changed its mind, citing
the current political atmosphere.
Addressing the weekly press
briefing at their Kamwokya base, agriculture secretary Joseph Tumwebaze
said registering as a party would make them vulnerable to political
harassment.
“After consultation from all the stakeholders, Reform
Agenda has decided not to register until the constitutional clauses which
we protested have been changed.
We are not registering today,
tomorrow or even next month,” he said.
Delegates at the Reform
Agenda consultative meeting in Kampala recently said the group would
register as a party.
But Tumwebaze said Reform Agenda would only
register if the ground was levelled to promote free and fair competition.
“Our chairman (Kizza Besigye) is willing to return to the country
but this cannot be possible under the current situation. The issue of our
registration as a political party has aroused a lot of excitement but we
want to state that it is not possible to register in this circus. As long
as the bottlenecks still exist, we are not going to register,” he said.
He said Uganda did not have an impartial electoral commission.
“The law states that the chairman of the Electoral Commission must be at
the level of the high court judge, but the one we have now is a an
engineer,” he said.
The political pressure group
also
protested the idea of extending the detention period to 96 hours.
He said the Police should strengthen its investigations department
so that prosecution starts immediately after arrest.
“This system
of arresting suspects and they rot in prisons should stop. Before anybody
is arrested, there should be enough evidence so that he/she is
prosecuted,” Tumwebaze said.
He said Reform Agenda was also
opposed to plans to hold a referendum on the lifting of the two-term limit
for a president and the ban on political parties, saying it was a waste of
resources.
“Both the Movement and the multi-partyists have the
same views that the country should return to multi-party politics. Why
subject this to a referendum?” Tumwebaze asked.
He said all
constitutional amendments should be handled by Parliament to save money.
The old political parties had refused to register, protesting the
Political Organisation Act (POA) which they say is oppressive. They,
however, criticised the new parties for registering, saying they are
backed by the Government.
Ends
Published on: Tuesday, 27th April,
2004 |
