Monday, October 20, 2003
NRM-O Faces More Opposition
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
MORE POLITICAL parties have joined the Democratic ParTy's bid to block President Yoweri Museveni's backers from registering the Movement as a political party, to be known as the National Resistance Movement Organisation (NRM-O), claiming that it is seeking to become a party and yet wants to remain in full control of the army and district councils.
The NRM-O application to register was published in the Uganda Gazette of October 6 by the Registrar General, Kyomuhendo Bisereko. And objections from the public were to be filed within 14 days.
The Movement has been facing constant pressure from the opposition as well as parliament since the expiry of its constitutionally mandated existence on July 11.
The Movement Amendment Bill 2003 was passed on September 18, but it is waiting for presidential assent.
The Bill, opposition parties say, establishes structures that are similar to those of political party and yet operating as a state, and not government. It also restricts candidates to standing in elections as individuals and not as part of a system or party, a provision which was made a mockery of in the 2001 elections when the Movement backed particular candidates.
The Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC), which ruled Uganda twice between 1966 and 1971 and between 1980 and 1985, said that they were joining the Democratic Party (DP) to halt the registration of the National Resistance Movement Organisation (NRM-O).
DP lawyer Elias Lukwago wrote to Principal State Attorney Nasuna Juliet, citing five grounds on which the party said NRM-O should not be registered. These included confusion and multiplicity in the laws that would, in effect, create three different Movements. First by article 69 of the Constitution, second by the Movement Act 1997 and third by the National Resistance Movement Organisation, which all share the same characteristics.
Mr Lukwago also pointed out that this duplication would mean that even with multipartyism, the army and the public service would owe allegiance to NRM-O.
However, Ofwono Opondo, director of information at the Movement secretariat, told The EastAfrican that no one could stop them from registering since the DP and the UPC are not parties as they have not registered under the Political Parties and other Organisations Act (POA).
"We shall go ahead and register. No one is going to stop us from registering; at the end of the month we shall have our certificate," said Mr Opondo.
The Attorney General, Francis Ayume, said that political parties should go ahead and register under the POA and that the Movement will register despite opposition from multipartyists.
Other grounds that Mr Lukwago cited are the participation of President Museveni in the formation of NRM-O, which is against the POA. President Museveni is both an army and a public officer, and both the army and public officials are barred from participating in partisan politics.
Mr Opondo, however, said that the president did not sign any of the required legal documents for NRM-O registration in his capacity as lieutenant-general of the Uganda People's Defence Force.
He further added that, "Even if President Museveni as an officer of the Uganda People's Defence Force had signed the legal documents, the penalties for such a breach cannot be imposed on the NRM-O."
DP lawyers also said that according to a 2002 constitutional court case won by the party, the Movement is an illegal organisation and so they are querying the participation of the Movement secretariat in the formation of NRM-O.
Mr Lukwago also said they were blocking the use of the DP party's colour � green � by the Movement. But Mr Opondo said DP had not registered the colour so it did not have a claim to it.
The Movement's symbols are the thumbs-up sign, yellow bus and it has now added the colour green for a new look NRM-O.
Dr James Rwanyarare, chairman of the Presidential Policy Commission of the UPC said: "We cannot have the Movement operating the Movement Statute of 1997 and also have it registered as a political party. The Movement Act must first be amended or done away with so that it's agreeable with the Constitutional court ruling of 2002."
He said UPC had joined DP's bid to block the registration of the Movement because it was a fraudulent move. UPC also says that before NRM-O registers, the POA must be annulled.
The POA restricts opposition parties from having offices outside Kampala and imposes fines for violating registration rules like holding political rallies. The Movement is exempted from these restrictions, said Mr Rwanyarare.
The Movement Act gives the state the power to scrutinise political organisations and control them. Articles 32(1), 2 and 29(2)a and 5 of the Political Organisation Bill provide for the collective punishment of members of political parties when a party breaks the law.
The DP also says it will challenge in court a state appeal contesting the constitutional court's ruling in May that declared null and void Articles 18 and 19 of POA.
DP spokesman Jude Mbabali told The EastAfrican: "If Museveni says he wants to open up to multipartyism and then wants to go to parliament to persuade legislators to pass the Movement Amendment Bill, it simply shows he is not sincere. There is ambiguity in what he is saying."
Betty Kamya, the spokesperson for Reform Agenda, said that her organisation would participate in a transition to multiparty rule only if National Political Commissar Crispus Kiyonga's office prepared a working document.
Additional reporting by David Kaiza
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