Parties disagree on IPOD summit

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Parties disagree on IPOD summit
Parties disagree on IPOD summit

Africa-PressUganda. The Inter-Party Organisation for Dialogue (IPOD) is facing one of its toughest tests as the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM)party takes on the mantle to chair the forthcoming summit.

While announcing the summit on Monday, which is scheduled to take place on Friday, the NRM secretary general, Ms Justine Kasule Lumumba, who is the current council chair, listed a number of issues to be tackled in the summit, including addressing the bad blood between the NRM party and the Opposition following the January 14 presidential election.

The summit is also set to review the resolutions that were endorsed during the 2018 and 2019 summits.

“We will also discuss the events that unfolded in the just concluded elections such as violence, hate speech and sectarian talk, among others,” she said.

The Opposition accused the security forces of taking over the role of the national Electoral Commission and engaging in grave human rights violations, including arbitrary arrests, torture and disappearance of Opposition supporters.

President Museveni’s main challenger, Mr Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, before applying for withdrawal of his petition, claimed the election was characterised by state-sponsored violence and vote rigging. However, those opposed to the summit, accuse the ruling NRM party of rushing the summit without presenting a clear agenda for discussion.

The Justice Forum (Jeema) party spokesperson, Mr Abdunoor Kyamundu, yesterday said while the party believes in dialogue as one of the avenues to addressing the misunderstandings in the country, it must be structured with a clear agenda and a resolution implementation mechanism.

“Short of that, we might not attend the Friday summit,” he charged.He observed that the government last month suspended operations of the Democratic Governance Facility that funds the activities of IPOD. He tasked the NRM leadership to explain who is going to fund the summit following the suspension of DGF.

Mr Kyamundu also said political parties have severally tried to convene the summit to discuss critical issues that included transition from Mr Museveni to another leader, management of 2021 elections, human rights abuses by government and political party’s funding but the NRM has always frustrated their efforts.

“We wonder why the NRM party is in a hurry to commit the parties abruptly,” he added. Mr Kyamundu yesterday said they are constrained to dialogue with a regime that continuously violates human rights.

“We want to request that all political prisoners be released with immediate effect as a goodwill gesture and show of willingness for a meaningful dialogue. Why should we continuously meet for tea and photo moments yet our brothers and sisters are rotting in prisons?” Mr Kyamundu questioned

The Forum for Democratic Change says they will not participate in the summit.FDC says following the just concluded elections, there are so many questions to which they are demanding answers, before engaging in any meaningful dialogue.

Mr Nathan Nandala Mafabi, the FDC secretary general, in a letter to the chairperson IPOD council, said the hurried summit will not allow the parties to engage in internal dialogue to agree on issues to be presented during the summit.

“As you are aware, we have just concluded an election which was mismanaged by the Electoral Commission with the help of military and other security agencies. As a party, we are still auditing the elections with all its related anomalies. We are informed that you want to hold a summit meeting, without allowing parties through their organs to discuss the agenda of the said summit. Our council members are supposed to present the agenda with minutes to the party for endorsement,” Mr Nandala said.

“We think that IPOD should have first audited and discussed the January 2021 General election since they were marred by irregularities. We are aware that during the summit, you deal with the agreed positions from council meeting based on each party position. For us as FDC, we have to go through our party structures first. Therefore, before the above issues are addressed, FDC will not be available for the summit,” he said.

UPC, DP ready for dialogue

While Jeema and FDC are not willing to engage in the dialogue because of issue they have raised, other Opposition political parties say they are ready to engage the ruling NRM party through the IPOD summit.

Ms Sharon Arach Oyat, the UPC party spokesperson, yesterday said the party has been at the forefront of championing dialogue and constructive engagements across the political divide in the interest of national development and that the party will participate in the Friday summit. “All these engagements help to strengthen and shape multiparty democracy in the country. UPC, therefore, confirms its attendance in the forthcoming IPOD summit and pledges full continuous commitment to the IPOD business,” she said.

Mr Norbert Mao, the Democratic Party president, said while they did not explicitly indicate whether his party will participate in the summit, DP is extremely concerned with the reported cases of abductions, kidnaps, unlawful arrests, illegal detentions, torture, and disappearances targeting Opposition activists.

“As a party committed to non-violence, rule of law and constitutionalism, we condemn these illegal acts of state terrorism in the strongest terms. But we will not stop at condemnation. We believe that this is the time that the political parties have to take steps to end these troubling activities that flagrantly violate the rights of citizens,” he said.

Mr Mao challenged President Museveni, who is the current chairperson of the summit, to convene an extraordinary summit to discuss the reports of unlawful arrests, illegal detentions, kidnaps and torture.

“I have consulted the leaders of three of the IPOD-member parties namely JEEMA, UPC and FDC and they agree that a high-level meeting under the aegis of IPOD can be an important forum for dealing with mutual suspicions and ensuring that the armed forces adhere to the rule of law,” he said.

Ms Lumumba, who is convening the summit, was not available to explain whether the issues raised by the other parties will be addressed.

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