Parties sign cooperation agreement

By Moses Mulondo

OPPOSITION parties FDC, UPC, CP and JEEMA have signed an agreement to work out a common strategy for the 2011 elections.

In a jubilant mood, party leaders Dr. Kizza Besigye (FDC), Miria Obote (UPC), Ken Lukyamuzi (CP) and Mohamed Kibirige Mayanja (JEEMA) signed the pact yesterday at Kololo airstrip.

Although DP had been engaged in the preparations, its delegation did not turn up for the signing ceremony.

Only Kawempe south MP Ssebuliba Mutumba, who does not hold any executive post in the party, sat in the DP tent.

The protocol also aims at “advocacy and campaigns for the removal of all constitutional, legal, electoral, administrative, economic, security and any other form of obstacle to the full realisation of free and open democratic multiparty governance in Uganda.”

Another key mission is to identify urgent corrective action and bring pressure on the Government to act.

The summit shall be the protocol’s supreme decision making organ. It will be composed of the party leaders and one other person chosen by each of the parties.

The cooperation will have a steering committee to design, coordinate and execute the work plan and a secretariat, which will manage it.

The summit will, at an appropriate time, announce the name of the cooperation.

During the weekly press briefing yesterday, DP president Ssebaana Kizito said: “We cannot sign an alliance with other parties. The best we can do is to cooperate, in order to remove hindrances to democracy in this country.”

But CP president Ken Lukyamuzi told the participants that the cooperation was the only alternative to removing the “dictatorial” NRM regime.

Besigye said: “If we don’t cooperate to democratically remove this oppressive regime, Ugandans may have to resort to other means to liberate themselves.”

JEEMA president Kibirige Mayanja echoed Besigye’s stand: “JEEMA is willing to do whatever it takes in realising the prime goal of this cooperation, which is liberating Uganda from the NRM regime.”

Miria Obote, the current chairperson of the cooperation, said: This cooperation is the vehicle that will free Ugandans from the NRM bondage. We have taken the first bold step in the annals of history. Today and not tomorrow is the time for all Ugandans to embrace the cooperation.”