Talks to decide on fresh FDC polls delayed

By Umaru Kashaka  

A meeting of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) governing organ to decide whether to hold or not another party presidential poll next year has again been postponed to next week.

Speaking to New Vision on Friday, the party spokesperson Wafula Oguttu said although initial meetings began on Thursday, the national executive committee was unable to meet because the committee set up to analyze the recommendation for fresh polls had not yet finalized its report.

“We’ve postponed the meeting to next week although we met and had some discussions,” the Bukhooli Central MP said.

The party president Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu had set September 27 as the tentative date for an initial meeting where an eight-man committee of party elders and eminent people were expected to report on their efforts to heal the longstanding rift.

According to some party officials, one or two more meetings are expected before the matter is finally settled.

The committee of elders is the last of the party’s repeated attempts to amicably resolve a dispute that originated in the November 22, 2012 elections to replace former party president Dr Kizza Besigye.

Gen Muntu won with 393 votes against Nathan Mafabi’s 361 and Geoffrey Ekanya’s 17.

Following the election, the team led by Mafabi, who leads the opposition in Parliament, filed a petition to the party’s national executive committee, complaining about “serious irregularities without which the team would have won.”

Without seeking to overturn the elections, the petition prayed for a thorough investigation and exposure of all ‘’irregularities resulting from acts of omission or commission in order that there be reconciliation and healing in the party.

The team claimed the “irregularities” related to multiple voting allegations against Alice Alaso, the party’s secretary general, and that Dan Mugarura, former chair of the party’s electoral commission, unconstitutionally sworn in Muntu.

The team also questioned Besigye’s successor on grounds that he used abusive language to characterize Mafabi during his campaigns.