Should a ruling political party have power to sack the president?

By Col. Dr. Kizza Besigye

When the NRM expelled some of its MPs from the party, I didn’t expect the kind of controversy that has arisen as to whether they should or shouldn’t vacate their seats. I thought that it was clear from the current legal provisions and the existing precedents that the MPs would retain their seats. However, a lot of interesting legal and political arguments have been presented by many people for and against the Speaker’s decision maintaining the MPs tenure of office. This is what has attracted me to present my own views and arguments and to ask some questions.

I was a member of the Constituent Assembly (CA) that debated, adopted and promulgated the Ugandan Constitution (1995). From that vantage point, I would like to share what I believe the intention of the CA was in making the provisions in Article 83 (g) of the Constitution.

The CA was trying to stop the mischief of MPs elected on party platforms defecting to other parties- especially, to the ruling party. This was particularly informed by the massive defections of DP MPs to the ruling UPC during the earlier attempts at multiparty politics.

The defecting MPs would, obviously, abandon the policy platforms that formed an important basis for their election. This is why the CA deemed it necessary to require that when that happens, then the defecting MP should get a new mandate on the basis of his/her new policy platform.

If a political party expels an MP as a part of its disciplinary processes, it cannot, by itself, amount to a defection from the policy platform on which the people elected the MP. If the expelled MP defects to a different policy platform, then the provisions of Article 83(g) would come into play.

Whereas political parties have a duty to ensure organisational discipline of their members and have a right to take all forms of disciplinary actions, including expulsion, parties do not elect MPs and cannot, by their exclusive actions, affect the tenure of an MP. This is why expulsion from the party is not among the grounds for vacating the office of MP in Article 83. The electorate, however, has power (under Article 84) to recall an MP on grounds of misconduct or misbehaviour that is likely to bring hatred, ridicule, contempt or disrepute to the office (not to the party).

Political parties have two main roles. First, they help to aggregate and advocate for interests of a community in an orderly manner. In trying to aggregate interests, they help generate compromises. This is why, inherently, there are many active differing interests within a political party, but common ideas are projected by the party. Secondly, parties identify, train, develop and support leaders for political offices; so as to implement their policies. It is from the second role that parties sponsor candidates for nomination during an election.

An elected official becomes a servant of the community that elects him/her and it is to that community that he/she is primarily accountable.

It ought to be remembered that the majority of voters are not party adherents. They are just pursuing their local concerns; hence the common notion that “all politics is local”. In Uganda, people receive and keep the NRM cards because they are freely distributed to all people and they are sometimes necessary to access government services. Most members of other parties also keep an NRM card for that purpose.

Numerous studies have shown that in “emerging democracies”, political parties are, either, too weak and fluid, too personalised, too constrained by oppressive governments, or, too corrupt and out of touch with peoples’ needs.

On the other hand, in consolidated democracies, a very tiny minority of citizens are political party adherents.  “Confidence Index” studies that have been done on democratic institutions in Europe, Latin America and Africa place political parties at the bottom! They come below the religious institutions, the parliament, the presidency, the Armed forces, and the judiciary. This is thought to be the reason why support has risen for independents, special interest parties and anti-party movements.

In United Kingdom, the three main political parties (Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats) have less than 500,000 members! The ruling (main coalition partner) Conservative Party has a membership of less than 200,000.

This is why the tenure of an MP cannot and should not be determined by a political party that sponsored and/or supported his/her candidature.

In spite of the weaknesses of political parties, I would like to emphasise that their role, as outlined earlier, is indispensible in democratic governance.

It has been suggested that the expelled MPs cannot remain in the House because they are neither members of any party or independents. That is ridiculous because they wont be the first or only ones in this category. The 10 members of the UPDF are not independents or members of any party. We have been questioning why they only sit on the government (NRM) side of Parliament. These, like the expelled NRM MPs, ought to be free to sit wherever they want in the House.

If the NRM wants to have more control of their MPs, they should consider amending the Constitution to provide for proportional representation in Parliament. Under this system, the voters just vote for the party. The percentage of votes the party gets in the election is the same percentage of MPs the party will appoint. This means that the party will forward the names of its MPs to Parliament. Even then, parties are normally required to present their lists to the Electoral Commission before the elections.

The logic that the NRM and some people are advancing would mean that the NRM disciplinary committee could decide to expel the President Yoweri Museveni from the party- and I am convinced that there are many grounds for them to do so. The Central Executive Committee of NRM would sit (not chaired by the accused) and confirm the expulsion. With that decision, Museveni would vacate the office of president since he was elected on an NRM ticket. What goes around has a habit of coming around!!