By Arans Tabaruka
Africa-Press – Uganda. The dust is yet to settle from the recently concluded NRM structures and party elections an exercise marred by widespread allegations of voter bribery, ballot tampering, intimidation, and blatant rigging.
Rather than strengthening internal party democracy, the primaries continue to expose NRM’s deeply entrenched culture of patronage and manipulation.
But beyond the immediate chaos lies a more sophisticated deception, the rise of NRM-leaning independent candidates a calculated fraud that continues to derail Uganda’s transition into a credible multiparty democracy.
As discontent brews, the chairman of the party President Museveni I a comforting attempt to disgranted parties among aspirants and voters who were rigged out or unfairly sidelined during these chaotic primaries, urged them to ramin united but clearly many are now “breaking away” to contest as independents.
Yet their allegiance to the NRM remains evident in their rhetoric, campaign branding, and loyalty to party lines. This phenomenon is not new but in light of the primary debacle, it has reached new levels of absurdity and danger.
These “independents” are not alternative voices they are rebranded insiders, offering voters an illusion of choice while preserving the same ruling party hegemony.
In practice, the electorate is faced with a tragic dilemma: choosing between a declared NRM candidate, and a disgruntled but ideologically identical NRM-leaning “independent.” It’s a zero-sum game that defeats the purpose of political pluralism.
This strategy is not accidental [and this is my emphasis] it is part of a broader, well-oiled scheme to fragment the opposition, neutralise dissent, and legitimise the ruling party’s continued dominance through a façade of competitive politics.
The NRM exploits its internal electoral mess to unleash a battalion of “independents” who confuse voters, dilute the opposition vote, and ultimately pledge allegiance to the party once in office.
What transpired during the party elections where chaos reigned and merit was traded for money and manipulation only affirms that the NRM’s version of internal democracy is a smoke screen.
It is neither about empowering grassroots voices nor fostering accountability. It is about maintaining power at any cost, even if that means betraying the very ideals of multipartism enshrined in Uganda’s Constitution.
The Electoral Commission, political parties, and civil society must urgently address this trend. Uganda must stop pretending that it is practicing multiparty democracy when what’s unfolding is nothing more than state-engineered monopolism in disguise.
Until NRM-leaning independents are called what they truly are, tools of “political deception” Ugandans will remain trapped in a cycle of impossible choices, with democracy merely on paper, not in practice.
The writer is a Veteran Journalist, Lawyer & Champion of Rural Community Empowerment.
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