Parties Seek 1b/- To Fight POB In Court

By Felix Osike and Geresom MusamaliMULTIPARTYISTS yesterday ruled out going to war over the Political Organisations and Parties Bill (POB), saying they would instead raise sh1b for a battle in the Constitutional Court.The Bill, passed last Thursday, lays down a stringent mechanism for registration of existing and new political parties. It also prohibits parties from opening offices below their headquarters and from holding meetings and seminars at district level. Samia Bugwe North MP Aggrey Awori, Jeema President Kibirige Mayanja, Democratic Party (DP) factional president-general Francis Bwengye, National Democratic Forum (NDP) president Chapaa Karuhanga, and Conservative Party (CP) spokesman Joseph Simbwa and other party supporters met yesterday at Hotel Africana to chart the way forward.Awori later told a press briefing that the lawyers would file the case after President Yoweri Museveni has assented to the Bill, which was passed amid protest from the multipartyists and Movement reformists. “The law is the basic document which will be required in court as evidence. There is no way you can walk into court to ask it to rule against a law that does not exist yet,” said Awori. Dismissing the possibility of going to war, Awori said, “Certainly we are not thinking of war as an alternative. We shall use peaceful means and win this struggle.”Sources told The New Vision after the meeting that two British and two Kenyan constitutional experts have been hired to defend the parties in court, in addition to three local top lawyers.The sources said the Uganda Law Society has been contacted to clear the foreign lawyers to come and argue the case as soon as Museveni assents to the law. An earlier Bill passed by Parliament allowing political parties to open offices at district level was rejected by Museveni and returned to Parliament. Museveni is now required by law to assent to the Bill within 60 days from last Thursday. Awori said the multipartyists had resolved to work together as a block to defeat the POB. He said they would sensitise the public against the law and also lobby the donor community to intervene and prevail on Museveni to open political space.The donors in a statement issued last week said the Bill did not appear to advance a democratic transition, which they said was needed before 2006. Nwoya MP Zachary Olum, Kole MP Omodi Okot, Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) founder member Adoko Nekyon, and several UPC and DP youth were present at the press conference.The working breakfast meeting is said to have had the blessing of Dr. Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere, the leader of the mainstream Democratic Party.Olum, who led the successful fight against the Referendum on Political Systems Act 1999 in the Constitutional Court said the multipartyists will meet again on Saturday to map out the sources of financing and other details.Other options considered were the holding of a consultative conference for all political parties and every political party to call a delegate’s conference within 30 days.Meanwhile, DP is going to court to challenge the Bill, Ssemogerere said yesterday, reports Okello Jabweli.Addressing a news conference at DP’s City House headquarters, Ssemogerere said the party had already instructed its lawyers to institute proceedings in the Constitutional Court.Ssemogerere said DP would embark on a political programme aimed at discrediting the parties law. “We are looking at the possibility of creating a very hostile environment for it.” He said the party has instituted committees for political and constitutional action.Kyadondo South MP Issa Kikungwe said “we are going to use this opportunity to throw the Movement off-balance. They are talking of national level but for us we are going much deeper. Just wait and see.” Ssemogerere said the POB which was meant to cater for the regulation of political parties had been turned into an instrument for repression and oppression of political parties.Ssemogerere said provisions like those laying down a fixed term of office for party executives and the frequency of meetings are unwarranted intrusions into the internal operations and rules of political parties.Ends