Political parties' code of conduct under way

By Muzafalu Ssentongo Zabaana

In a bid to promote consultative democracy in the country, the National Consultative Forum for political parties and organisations - NCF has embarked on a process of drafting the long-awaited code of conduct for political parties.  

In its three-day workshop at Victoria Mall Hotel in Entebbe, members of the Forum discussed and brainstormed on a series of documents that had been prepared by a team of vastly experienced experts from Attorney General's office, ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Uganda Parliamentary Council, Uganda Human Rights Commission, Electoral Commission and NGO Forum - Uganda. 

This process has only began, but will gradually bring other stakeholders on board before Parliament concludes the final working document. 

Parties have been operating without a binding and guiding set of regulations, to the detriment of democracy and good governance. With a code of conduct in place, sanity among political parties is expected to prevail in their day-to-day operations before, during and after elections. 

NCF is labouring to ensure that any election reflects the will of the people. This can be partly achievable when there is a leveled ground for all political players. People should further gain trust in the electoral process.

Everybody is looking forward to having elections which are free, fair and legitimate, both in rhetoric and practice. Elections need to be largely peaceful and should provide a good moment and opportunity for democracy. 

The democracy will subsequently trigger greater political and socio-economic transformation.

The code of conduct should not be a farce but should rather be respected and implemented by those in power and in Opposition equally. It must curb or mitigate political excesses such as arrogance, violence, intimidation, harassment and character assassination.  

Even a hotly contested election should be peaceful - never should an election compromise harmony, unity and mutual co-existence.

It is true there is a general lack of trust among politicians world over and without a binding code, the atmosphere simply worsens. Any country yearns for a democratic rotation of leadership and it is achievable. 

When people lose hope in the electoral process, at one time, they may not go to vote and this triggers bad times for the country. 

Of course we cannot pretend that there can ever be a perfect election the  world over but some degree of fairness and integrity must be observed and this is what the code intends to promote.

We've had pretty more time to reform our country and democracy than God had to create the earth, all of us, therefore, should reduce our excuses.

The writer is a member of the Green Partisan Party and publicist of the National Consultative Forum