Besigye an expert in losing - Mao

By Moses Mulondo

DEMOCRATIC Party (DP) President Norbert Mao has campaigned against former FDC leader Dr. Kizza Besigye saying he should not get back into the presidential race having lost the contest three times. 

“You cannot win a presidential race when you don’t have a solid home base. In the 2011 race, I won three districts in the Northern region and Besigye won four districts and none of them was in the western region. Besigye was number three in Acholi region. You don’t go and kumanyiira (disrespect) people’s bases,” Mao said.

Mao made the remarks on Saturday while addressing leaders of youth wings/leagues for the NRM, DP, FDC, CP, JEEMA, UPC and PPP at Nob View Hotel in Ntinda.

The former Gulu district chairman said more than ever before opposition parties are now determined to have a coalition and he is better placed to be the coalition presidential flag bearer.

“Some people have become experts in losing. For me if I lose the first time, I cannot lose the second time and if I lose the second time I just give up. If you have a team star who has failed three times to score a penalty in key matches, it would be unwise to try him the fourth time,” Mao said in a thinly veiled attack against Besigye.

Whereas the DP NEC in 2011 elections rejected a proposal to join the opposition coalition of Interparty Cooperation (IPC), the party’s NEC last week approved the proposal to join other opposition parties to create a solid alliance which can remove the NRM party from power.

“We are very serious about the coalition this time. If the opposition elects me the flag bearer, I will defeat Museveni,” Mao stated.

He revealed that as opposition parties, they have to register their coalition with the Electoral Commission with one symbol for change which all coalition candidates will use at all levels.

Mao further argued that former President Museveni allies like Besigye, Amama Mbabazi, Miria Matembe, Mugisha Muntu and Bishop Zac Niringiye cannot teach him how to oppose Museveni.

“That is why in 2001 when asked to comment about Besigye’s candidature, I said Besigye and Museveni are fingers of the same hand. They are one side of the same coin. But because there was no option for none of the above, I grudgingly voted for Besigye,” he narrated.

Arguing that many politicians have an ugly and compromised past, Mao urged Ugandans to critically analyze the political past of those offering themselves to lead them.

“Ex-Museveni allies have no moral authority to teach me how to oppose Museveni. Some of you were idiots to have followed Museveni. As a political commissar, Besigye used to stop DP meetings. Winnie Byanyima opposed me in parliament when I said a fish rots from the head."

"Mbabazi, who was the architect of the draconian Public Order Management Act, is now saying Museveni should go. I always tell Muntu you used to give orders to helicopters to bomb my people in the North,” he emphasized.

Mao, who made a lengthy speech from 5:30pm to 8:15pm, cautioned the executive and parliament that if they leave out core electoral reforms Ugandans are demanding, they would resort to deadly walk to work related protests.