DP given cooperation deadline

Sep 30, 2008

THE Democratic Party (DP) has been given up to November to join the inter-party cooperation.

By Moses Mulondo

THE Democratic Party (DP) has been given up to November to join the inter-party cooperation.

The deadline was made at the inter-party summit at UPC leader Miria Obote’s residence in Kololo on Thursday.

“Our colleagues in DP have not been fair because they have given us deadlines for their consultations three times and they kept postponing. We agreed not to allow this to go on beyond their delegates conference,” said Wafula Oguttu, the spokesperson of the cooperation.

But DP president John Ssebaana Kizito said the ultimatum made them suspicious of the motive of the cooperation.

“We thought this was a voluntary initiative. Why do they have to rush us. We are sorry for them because in DP, decisions are taken after consulting all party members and that is what we are doing,” Ssebaana said yesterday.

DP declined to sign the cooperation pact on August 5, at Kololo airstrip.

Signed by FDC, UPC, CP and JEEMA, the main aim of the protocol was to jointly fight common political barriers before the 2011 general elections.

According to sources in DP, the party rejected the cooperation in its recent National Council Meeting at Bukasa, but agreed not to make the decision public until they compiled a thorough defence for its rejection.

The source said DP’s legal adviser convinced the members that the inter-party pact was an alliance being made to look like a cooperation.

The sources added that DP wants to field its own presidential candidate in the 2011 poll.

The Uganda Young Democrats, DP’s youth wing, has started a countrywide tour to promote Gulu chairman Norbert Mao as the party’s candidate for 2011.

“To compete favourably at the national level, you must have the backing of your region. This makes Mao more powerful than FDC’s Kizza Besigye, who lost his home ground, Rukungiri, to Museveni. Mao has already won the heart of the north,” DP’s deputy campaign director Mukasa Mbidde told Saturday Vision recently.

But Aswa MP Reagan Okumu dismissed the assertion, saying the north was predominantly FDC.

Meanwhile, Wafula announced that JEEMA leader Mohammed Kibirige Mayanja replaced Miria Obote as the chairperson of the inter-party cooperation.

The leadership rotates every three months.

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