June 06 2005 at 10:46AM | |
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Johannesburg - A major Ugandan opposition grouping wound up a meeting in South Africa late on Sunday with a call for international and domestic pressure on President Yoweri Museveni to lift a ban on political parties. While political parties are allowed to exist in name in Uganda, they are banned from carrying out activities such as fielding candidates in elections. Only the "Movement", an entity that in theory includes all Ugandans and is led by Museveni, is allowed to do so, leading to charges by the opposition that Uganda is a one-party state. Besigye said: "We will launch legal challenges inside Uganda to end the oppressive and corrupt system," adding that the protests would include unspecified "acts of defiance." "We will mobilise the international community, which funds 50 percent of Uganda's budget, to make future funding conditional on the reforms we are advocating." "We will petition African leaders to impress on them that the government of Yoweri Museveni is contravening all the values contained in the founding principles of the African Union." Besigye, who was Museveni's personal physician when they were guerrillas fighting the regime of Idi Amin, served as Museveni's interior minister and was chosen to lead the FDC when it was formed last August. He said he wanted to return to Uganda as soon as possible. "I want to participate in the run-up to the election scheduled for next March and stop Museveni's efforts to tamper with the constitution to make himself president for life," he said. Uganda is due to hold a referendum on July 28 on whether to restore multi-party politics. The plebiscite was initially scheduled for June 30 but was delayed. - Sapa-AFP |
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