Mao calls for national unity gov't in 2021

Democratic Party (DP) president Norbert Mao has called for a government of national unity after 2021 general elections.

Mao was responding to New Vision on whether or not he would contest for the country's highest office in 2021.

"I have not yet decided. That is an open question for me to make a decision on but deep in my heart I believe the next government should be a government of national unity.

We need everybody to bring the country back together," he said.

Mao, who is facing a strong challenge from within DP courtesy of Mukono Municipality MP and and the party's Buganda region vice president, Betty Nambooze, argued that the economy has been dominated by "a small handful".

"We need a minimum economy programme to give the country back to those who own it, namely the ordinary citizens.

Our democracy is in tatters because there is no rule of law, the courts of law have been a mockery, the security agencies have been rogue that is even acknowledged by the President himself," he said.

"Then the country is so divided. We need to heal the wounds of the past. The north, south divide has become worse and for the first time we need to have a trans-regime army.

We should have an army that can stay beyond the life of a current government. Now that can't be done on a winner-take-all basis," Mao added.

He therefore said he was going to invest a lot of energy to see that they have a healthy discussion in Uganda.

"So that we get a vision-driven agenda not a personality-driven agenda. The biggest challenge we have in Uganda is that our politics are now personality driven and the personalities don't seem to embody any ideas that are bigger than themselves," Mao said.