Bidandi decampaigns inter-party committee
Aug 09, 2006
The interim president of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Bidandi Ssali, has urged political parties not to join the Inter-party Committee formed after the meeting between President Yoweri Museveni and former presidential candidates at State House on July 28.
By Charles Etukuri
The interim president of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Bidandi Ssali, has urged political parties not to join the Inter-party Committee formed after the meeting between President Yoweri Museveni and former presidential candidates at State House on July 28.
The committee is supposed to discuss the memoranda presented by parties to the President.
Bidandi also cautioned political parties against “engaging in future meetings with the President, lest they end up being collaborators in building a dictatorial one-party stateâ€.
In a statement yesterday, Bidandi said the inter-party committee was anomalous. “PPP refutes and dissociates itself from the notion that it was a meeting between the President and political parties.
consequently, the alleged formation of a political parties’ consultative forum is completely anomalous and should be understood as the formation of a Former Presidential Club.â€
The July 28 meeting was boycotted by FDC president Dr. Kizza Besigye, citing lack of a neutral chairman and venue but attended by UPC’s Miria Kalule Obote, Dr. Abedi Bwanika and DP’s John Ssebaana Kizito. The trio agreed after the meeting to form an inter-party committee, which would also extend to parties that were not invited to the meeting but were represented in Parliament.
Bidandi said the PPP viewed the meeting as one of Museveni’s characteristic and systematic manoeuvres. “We caution all parties to resist from falling prey to such traps by accepting the so-called forum,†he said.
Bidandi said the Constitution provided for the establishment of a national inter-party consultative forum. “What political parties must do is to urge the President and Government to hasten the presentation of the relevant bill to Parliament,†he said.
The interim president of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Bidandi Ssali, has urged political parties not to join the Inter-party Committee formed after the meeting between President Yoweri Museveni and former presidential candidates at State House on July 28.
The committee is supposed to discuss the memoranda presented by parties to the President.
Bidandi also cautioned political parties against “engaging in future meetings with the President, lest they end up being collaborators in building a dictatorial one-party stateâ€.
In a statement yesterday, Bidandi said the inter-party committee was anomalous. “PPP refutes and dissociates itself from the notion that it was a meeting between the President and political parties.
consequently, the alleged formation of a political parties’ consultative forum is completely anomalous and should be understood as the formation of a Former Presidential Club.â€
The July 28 meeting was boycotted by FDC president Dr. Kizza Besigye, citing lack of a neutral chairman and venue but attended by UPC’s Miria Kalule Obote, Dr. Abedi Bwanika and DP’s John Ssebaana Kizito. The trio agreed after the meeting to form an inter-party committee, which would also extend to parties that were not invited to the meeting but were represented in Parliament.
Bidandi said the PPP viewed the meeting as one of Museveni’s characteristic and systematic manoeuvres. “We caution all parties to resist from falling prey to such traps by accepting the so-called forum,†he said.
Bidandi said the Constitution provided for the establishment of a national inter-party consultative forum. “What political parties must do is to urge the President and Government to hasten the presentation of the relevant bill to Parliament,†he said.