[Ugnet] Muntu (another NRM) to Stand for Presidency

Maj. Gen. Mugisha Muntu, a former army commander and FDC promoter, yesterday said he could contest the 2006 presidential polls.

"Of course I will be up to the task if I were elected by FDC and the coalition of other parties to stand in 2006,"Muntu said during his first ever radio appearance on 93.3 Kfm's show Straight to the Point with Desree Barlow.

Muntu, the longest serving army commander, left a clean sheet in an institution marred by corruption. He said there are many personalities who could steer the Forum for Democratic Change in the 2006 elections.

Muntu, a liberal, fell out with the Movement after rejecting a proposal to amend the Constitution to allow President Yoweri Museveni rule for another term.

The Constitution prescribes that a President should only serve a maximum of two five-year terms. "In 1995 when we were debating the Constitution, it was by consensus that there should be two-terms. Because we don't have strong institutions in Africa and Uganda we should have term limits," he said.

He said because African leaders yield overwhelming power, personalities and institutions have been manipulated through the long arm of patronage.

Muntu said on many occasions he has held conversations with highly placed officers in the public service who contend that the third term is unwarranted. He said they could be manipulated and coerced to toe the third term position.

On FDC's impasse to register, Muntu accused government officials of sending confusing signals. "Government offices are giving different signals to what the problem could be," he said. He said the law specifies that after a party files its papers in the Registrar General's office, it should be gazetted within 30 days.

"It is two months since we handed in our papers but FDC has not been gazetted. Gazetting requires only Shs80,000," he said.

He said there is foot dragging on government's commitment to open up political space. Muntu said the recently tabled White Paper is not focused. He said it should address concerns affecting the transition to pluralism before 2006.

"The White Paper addresses so many issues that can be dealt with in the Eighth Parliament or in the next government after 2006," he said.

He criticised the retention of senior army officers and the High Command as at January 26, 1986 on the Army Council, the highest organ of the army.

Muntu, who was a senior army officer in 1986, will be part of the Army Council when the UPDF Bill is passed into law. Parliament recently passed clauses 13 and 14 that grant leeway to the High Command and senior army officers to sit on the Army Council.

"If the government wants to professionalise the army, then there should be no such a provision. I am a civilian and I am partisan so how can I sit on the Army Council?" he wondered. He said their expertise could be tapped through informal fora other than putting their names in statute books.

He sneered at another element of the UPDF Bill that recommends that the army can be deployed to stem violence in situations where the police failed.

Relating it to the violence in the 2001 parliamentary and presidential elections, Muntu said the army could turn partisan and mete out violence on opposition candidates come 2006. On the precarious situation prevailing in DP, Muntu said there are signs of external interference.

[Ugnet] Muntu (another NRM) to Stand for Presidency

Reply via email to