Party members should lose graciously
Dec 14, 2010
MANY National Resistance Movement (NRM) members have defied their party and sought nomination as independent parliamentary candidates. Fifty-two out of 75 candidates have decided to run as independents. Some of them are ministers.
MANY National Resistance Movement (NRM) members have defied their party and sought nomination as independent parliamentary candidates. Fifty-two out of 75 candidates have decided to run as independents. Some of them are ministers.
Although the NRM scrapped the electoral colleges in selecting candidates to avoid members running as independents, the problem has persisted. Other parties have followed suit. This has the undesirable effect of splitting votes.
The national Constitution provides for independent candidates but the rate at which losers are finding refuge in this provision betrays their lukewarm loyalty to their parties. Whereas the decision to run as an independent candidate under a multiparty system may be legal, it is legitimate only for those who belong to no party.
Uganda voted to return to a multiparty political system in a constitutional referendum on July 28, 2005. More than 90% of the voters backed the return to parties. Now, party members running for elective office must live by the tenets of a multiparty dispensation. The system is different from the old Movement system where candidates competed on the basis of individual merit.
It is disconcerting that most candidates have chosen to compete as independents only after they have been defeated in their parties. You cannot be independent and partisan at the same time. Those who choose to run as independents should renounce their party affiliation and stop associating themselves with the parties they have disobeyed.
This will preserve the integrity of the concept of independence. Allowing party members to run as independents without renouncing their party allegiance defeats the spirit of multiparty politics. People who rush to register as independent candidates after they have been defeated expose themselves as desperate for political office by hook or crook.
Although the NRM scrapped the electoral colleges in selecting candidates to avoid members running as independents, the problem has persisted. Other parties have followed suit. This has the undesirable effect of splitting votes.
The national Constitution provides for independent candidates but the rate at which losers are finding refuge in this provision betrays their lukewarm loyalty to their parties. Whereas the decision to run as an independent candidate under a multiparty system may be legal, it is legitimate only for those who belong to no party.
Uganda voted to return to a multiparty political system in a constitutional referendum on July 28, 2005. More than 90% of the voters backed the return to parties. Now, party members running for elective office must live by the tenets of a multiparty dispensation. The system is different from the old Movement system where candidates competed on the basis of individual merit.
It is disconcerting that most candidates have chosen to compete as independents only after they have been defeated in their parties. You cannot be independent and partisan at the same time. Those who choose to run as independents should renounce their party affiliation and stop associating themselves with the parties they have disobeyed.
This will preserve the integrity of the concept of independence. Allowing party members to run as independents without renouncing their party allegiance defeats the spirit of multiparty politics. People who rush to register as independent candidates after they have been defeated expose themselves as desperate for political office by hook or crook.