Africa-Press – Uganda. Today, there are a number of challenges restricting political parties from performing effectively.
First, there are the restrictions imposed by the external, legal and constitutional framework. This uneven playing field is attributed to three main issues. One, parties complain of the limited funding available to them as a result of the Political Parties Organisations Act (PPOA).
The PPOA sets strict limits on foreign party funding, and although it was amended to include public funding to parties in 2010, no funds have been released to date. This has led parties to see the PPOA as an NRM strategy geared to their containment and control not least because, as they claim it has access to State resources.
Two, the mistrust towards the Electoral Commission (EC) has discredited the electoral process. Opposition parties regard the EC as an NRM sponsored bulwark. Three, parties complain of the repression opposition activists and party members endure.
Second, there are the internal party deficiencies, which limit parties’ scope for action. Political parties are poorly institutionalised and remain disorganised, internally divided and with limited access to resources which prevents them from improving their capacities as credible and representative governing entities. Party prospects have been further compromised by the internal factions and leadership disputes, which characterise much of Ugandan party politics. The NRM, meanwhile, has its own share of problems.
It is far from monolithic and suffers from some of the same issues in party organisation and capacity as the Opposition parties. The ruling party essentially functions on a part time basis, in the run up to elections when conventional party structures need to be reactivated. The rest of the time, the party exists as a diffuse network of individuals, held together by a deeply entrenched patronage system.
While competitive politics does, by definition, set parties against each other, the mistrust that pervades inter-party relations in Uganda is acute, and may threaten the democratic process.
Opposition political parties in Uganda are faced with the huge task of choosing whether to “cooperate” and be co-opted or “confront” the ruling party. President Museveni has also co-opted individual members from Opposition parties even where there is no formal agreement at the party level and this weakens the multi-party arrangement in Uganda.
The relationship between Opposition political parties and individual Opposition politicians hasn’t been smooth as well. There have been accusations and counter accusations of “being in bed with the State” and talk of “who is genuine Opposition” has surfaced.
These accusations of genuine Opposition exist at the level of political parties but also within parties. The emergence of the National Unity Platform (NUP) seems to have rattled the status quo in the Opposition rankings and there has been a silent cold war between the two leading Opposition parties, the FDC and NUP.
Political parties suffer from low voter confidence. Although during elections, candidates contest on political party tickets and there is a fair voter turnout, these high voter turnout figures should not be strictly interpreted as an indicator of voter confidence in political parties per se. Rather, they indicate that voters trust the electoral process as a means of reconfiguring the way they are governed, for the better.
Political parties seem to be merely a necessary tool for getting there that can be safely discarded once their use expires. Indeed, with few exceptions, voter confidence in political parties is not directed to the institution as such. It is based on the personality of the leadership of the party and can be transferred to any party this leadership may choose. The failure by political parties to go beyond personalities is therefore a big concern.
Mr Deus Mukalazi Mubiru is a research associate, Great Lakes Institute for Strategic Studies.
