| KAMPALA
THE main opposition parties, the G6, have written to President Yoweri Museveni calling for 14 new political reforms ahead of next years general elections.
The group said if the reforms were not implemented by the end of the this year, they would boycott the 2006 elections.
The parties six-page letter, delivered to the President on Wednesday afternoon, warns that, Any election held before implementing the essential reforms will be illegitimate and the G6 would not be bound by the outcome of such an election.
The letter is copied to the Secretary General of the United Nations Mr Kofi Annan, the Speaker of Parliament, donors and diplomats in Uganda, the African Union Parliament, the East African Legislative Assembly and all MPs.
The Deputy Presidential Press Secretary, Mr Tamale Mirundi, said he was not sure the letter had been received at State House.
If they have written a letter and it is addressed to the President he will read and then d
ecide
whether to reply to it or not. Written on August 26, the letter was first sent to South Africa, for the exiled leader of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) Col (Rtd) Kizza Besigye to sign it.
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| (R-L) Members of the G6 Haji Hussein Kyanjo, Mr Chapaa Karuhanga, Dr Paul Ssemogerere and Mr Badru Wegulo at Christ the King Church Hall yesterday. Photo by John Nsimbe |
Other signatories include Mr Nsubuga Nsambu of the Conservative Party, the Democratic Party President Dr Paul Ssemogerere, Mr Hussein Kyanjo (Justice Forum Party), Prof. Fredrick Jjuuko (The Free Movement) and Mr Okello Okello of the Uganda Peoples Congress.
The G6 demands, among others, the immediate disbandment of the elite Presidential Guard Brigade (PGB) and the Electoral Commission.
The parties are also demanding the transformation of military and security institutions from partisan and personal loyalty to non-partisan, national, professional and disciplined institutions as required by the Constitution.
Ssemogerere read the letter to journalists at Christ the King Church in Kampala yesterday.
Disband the personal army in the form of the Presidential Guard Brigade whose majority of members and leaders were not recruited and promoted through the right channels of the UPDF and are favoured and remunerated exceptionally higher than the legal
and
national UPDF officers, men and women, reads sub section (e) of condition one.
Ssemogerere was flanked by Hajji Badru Wegulo, the chairman of UPCs Constitutional Steering Committee (CSC) the partys top ruling organ.
Briefly in this petition we are putting into context the demands we have been making ever since G6 was formed to engage this government to pursue a peaceful transition, said Ssemogerere.
The group said they are raising the demands to ensure that the next election helps change the countrys chequered history with regard to elections. They said the demands were premised on the history of the country and current political situation in order to avert this national crisis.
Ssemogerere surprised journalists when he read in the first paragraph that the National Resistance Movement/Army, at a great cost to the country in terms of jobs and other material resources, shot its way to power in 1986, having justified rebellion by alleging that
the
1980 elections had been rigged by UPC.
Journalists quickly turned their eyes on UPCs Wegulo, who was next to Ssemogerere. President Museveni founded the rebel National Resistance Army (NRA) in 1981 mainly in protest of the December 1980 elections that were believed to have been won by DP, whose victory was stolen by UPC.
Other members at the press conference included Mr Karuhanga K. Chapaa of FDC, Mr Joseph Balikuddembe and Mr Damiano Lubega (DP), Mr Peter Walubiri (UPC), Mr John Ken Lukyamuzi (CP) Mr Ibrahim Kasozi and Mr Mwambutsya Ndebesa of the Free Movement. The parties demanded regulation of campaign spending and that government media resources be placed under the control of a multi partisan commission.
Other demands are a stop on political patronage among others by abolishing presidential donations, irregular and sectarian State House scholarships and an end to creation of political posts outside the traditional public service.
The part
ies want
the government to create and empower institutions and systems for peaceful resolution of conflicts and prevention of future conflicts.
The G6 say they want the government and the mainstream political parties and other stakeholders to develop and undertake a comprehensive national civic education programme to raise political, legal and democratic awareness of the electorate.
They also called for a sovereign national conference involving all legitimate civic and political organisations, to discuss and agree on an equitable democratisation process before the end of October 2005.
The G6 said it wants the government to guarantee the safe return of all exiled Ugandans and party leaders to participate in the democratic transition.
Mr President, we inform you that most were submitted to your government in form of proposals in December 2002 but your government took no action and the transition is now far behind schedule.
And therefore we demand that
your
government fulfils the above demands before the end of 2005 as most of the matters raised are prerequisites for democratic elections in 2006. We reiterate our firm stand that any election held before implementing the essential constitutional, legal, electoral and administrative reforms will be illegitimate and the G6 will not be bound by the outcome of such an election.
Mwambutsya-Ndebesa, a lecturer at Makerere University, said the country was now going through a process of deconstitutionalisation of the 1995 Constitution.
Lubaga South MP and Conservative Party Secretary General Ken Lukyamuzi said all attempts at holding elections since the country gained independence have ended in creating more trouble and warned that the leadership of President Museveni should avoid taking the country back the same route in 2006. Karuhanga said the G6 supports elections but want the process to be smooth and transparent.
Ssemogerere said the issues raised by the G6 wer
e out of
concern and that the parties were aware that there is still time enough to make amends before the elections in March next year.
There was a brief exchange between the beleaguered factions of the DP when Ssemogerere, responding to a question from a foreign journalist, asked former EC commissioner and DP member Mr Robert Kitariko to explain how the EC can be transformed to make it more acceptable to all the stakeholders.
Kitariko said the EC officials need security of tenure if they are to be insulated against manipulation from the appointing authority, who is the President.
His contribution, however, turned personal when he attacked Ssemogerere saying the parties should make their demands clear.
His tone while addressing Ssemogerere changed to shouting while Ssemogerere also tried to shout back. |