{UAH} Pojim/WBK: The amazing Ugandans and their incredible multiplying elections - Comment

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/The-amazing-Ugandans-and-their--incredible-multiplying-elections/-/434750/2833604/-/h1p526/-/index.html

The amazing Ugandans and their incredible multiplying elections

The number of political jobs that are at stake in Uganda's forthcoming elections is simply frightening. I checked with the Electoral Commission; there are about 1.8 million positions to be filled!

These jobs range from President of the Republic — and there is only one slot for that. Then there are some 434 parliamentary seats, 112 districts, several hundred sub-counties, municipalities, parishes and finally 60,000 villages. All these leadership units from the district downwards have some 10 elective officials each. Then there are the special interest groups.

In this country of 35 million people of whom 16 million are adults/voters, the ruling NRM has at least two persons vying for the party's candidature for each post, meaning that at least 3.6 million people or 22.5 per cent of the voters are active NRM politicians.

Now the ruling NRM is laying claim to 10.5 million voters as its registered members. This is very believable because if each aspirant had only recruited one proposer and one seconder, 3.6 million aspirants would yield 7.2 million followers, giving 10.8 members ready to vote for NRM today.

These numbers are bound to frustrate and anger the opposition. NRM recently displayed tonnes of election materials to be used for the party's primaries.

Since no Ugandan company had the capacity to supply any of the materials, the huge orders had to be given to Kenyan suppliers. Now NRM is kicking off its primaries, an elaborate dress rehearsal for the national elections. No prizes for guessing which side will have more spoilt ballots, and whose polling agents will be easier to confuse on the final national voting day.

It is tempting to give the opposition some advice. But it is also a very Ugandan thing to react badly to advice and accuse the person giving advice of being a supporter or an agent of one's rival.

All the same, an objective observer would agree that Uganda's opposition leaders spend too much time and energy focusing on the removal of President Yoweri Museveni the person.

This is wasteful because most voters are peasants who do not believe that they can affect a change in the presidency, and are also fearful of a change from an incumbent who took office before 70 per cent of the population was born.

Most voters' interest stops at changing or retaining their area MP. They will retain the president and return or fire the MP, based usually on his/her sins of omission, like not returning to them frequently after being voted in.

If the opposition alliances sought to dominate parliament, they could effect all the constitutional changes that they want.

But seeing two top leaders of the leading opposition party going out to campaign competing so vigorously against each for their party nomination to prove that they have internal democracy, just serves to confuse the peasantry.

Meanwhile, the NRM is unambiguously fronting its "sole candidate" as President Museveni tours the countryside promoting his "Operation Wealth Creation" encouraging modern farming and value addition — no politics. It must annoy his competitors but that is it!

If you are an opposition strategist, please tell them to focus on taking over parliament so that by 2021 they can literally handpick the next president and… but no, they won't listen to you because they only want to hear their sweet "Museveni Must Go" song. 

Joachim Buwembo is a Knight International Fellow for development journalism. E-mail: buwembo@gmail.com

The amazing Ugandans and their incredible multiplying elections - Comment

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/The-amazing-Ugandans-and-their--incredible-multiplying-elections/-/434750/2833604/-/h1p526/-/index.html

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