Uganda to begin talks on shift to party democracy
KAMPALA, Jan 10 (Reuters) - The Ugandan government, under pressure from international donors to end a 17-year-old ban on party politics, has for the first time set a date for talks with opposition leaders on a move to a multi-party democracy.
A senior government official said in remarks published on Saturday that talks would begin on January 16 between opposition parties and President Yoweri Museveni's all-embracing Movement to set the agenda for discussions on a transition to pluralism.
Under the east African country's constitution, Uganda is a "no-party" state governed by Museveni's ruling Movement, to which all Ugandans belong by law.
Elective office, including the presidency, is contested on individual merit and not along party lines.
"The government is ready to start preparatory talks with a small representative team from your side in order to agree on the agenda and other modalities of the consultations," government leader to the talks, Crispus Kiyonga, Museveni's so-called National Political Commissar, said in a letter published in Ugandan newspapers.
Museveni shot his way to power in 1986 after a five-year guerrilla struggle and quickly banned multi-party politics, which he blamed for dividing the population along sectarian lines and being the root of civil wars in the 1970s and 1980s.
Under pressure from donors, whose aid provides up to half the government's current expenditure, the government has signalled it may hold a referendum in early 2005 to approve constitutional changes that would lift some curbs on parties.
Museveni is accused by opponents of also wanting to lift a two-term limit on presidential tenures to allow him to run again in elections in 2006, a move critics would seize on as evidence of what they see as his increasingly autocratic tendencies.
Last week Museveni announced plans to retire as an army general to focus on politics, in line with new rules that will ban the military from holding party positions, sharpening opposition fears that he may try to run again.
The Movement has called for the presidential term limit to be lifted. Museveni has shown no sign of grooming a successor but has not stated publicly whether he will or will not run.
01/10/04 04:38 ET
