UPC calls for NRM, Opposition dialogue

By Moses Mulondo

Uganda People’s Congress (UPC), the party that led Uganda to independence, has called for a national convention involving the NRM, the opposition and all stakeholders to lead to the creation of a new constitution that the party says, will be agreeable to all Ugandans.

Addressing the party's weekly briefing on Thursday at Uganda House in Kampala, UPC spokesman Okello Lucima said Uganda needs a new beginning and healing from past wounds through a convention that will result into several interventions for putting right what went wrong.

"The national convention should include religious leaders, the civil society, traders, and political parties to discuss the roadmap for the next 50 years which will lead to the signing of a new covenant like the lanchestor conference of 1962," Okello.  

The UPC leaders pointed out the need for an independent electoral commission, corruption, tribalism, nepotism, disunity, various issues of national concern, federalism, revisiting the privatization policy, independence of the judiciary and parliament as some of major issues of concern to Ugandans to should be resolved by the convention.

"As UPC, we are ready for a national dialogue. Our country needs a new chapter. It has to be free and a democratic forum," he revealed.

Okello expressed dismay that at 50 years of independence, Uganda's economy is not yet independent from donors and domination by foreign companies.