20 July 2022, a working cooperation agreement was signed between NRM’s Yoweri Museveni and DP’s Norbert Mao each on behalf of their political parties.
The following day, 21 July 2022, President Museveni deemed it fit to make a spontaneous mini cabinet reshuffle that saw DPs president General appointed Minister for justice and constitutional affairs.
“By virtue of the authority conferred on the President by Articles 113(1) and 114 (1) of the 1995 constitution of the Republic of Uganda, I hereby appoint persons below as Cabinet Ministers and Ministers of State,” tweeted Museveni.
The Cabinet mini-reshuffle ursherd into Gorvernment DP’s Norbert Mao, in what many saw as a good win for the NRM government given his prolific political assertiveness.
The above appointment was fulfilled under objective number nine of the cooperation agreement which vividly stipulates that “The Democratic Party will hold the following portfolios inside of Cabinet: Norbert Mao will be appointed to the position of Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs. Another Democratic leader will be appointed to a junior ministerial position,”.
Using a ratherr analytical lens, we delve into what lies ahead for the Democratic Party as a political party given a series of binding factors legally adduced in the cooperation agreement, we shift our focus into understanding the perimeters of both parties, the powers therein and potential political hazards that the agreement may inevitably dictate.
First forward, Established in 1954, Democratic Party has largely been described as a politcal party that maintains “strong Roman Catholic support”, the party has over the years suffered numerous in-house bickering and witch-hunt, a political thrust that compelled the party’s Stalwarts like Erias Lukwago, Mathias Mpuga, Betty Nambooze among others to defect to other political parties in the build-up to the 2021 presidential and parliamentary elections.
With an agreement reached between two political parties that are supposedly meant to be operating with parallelism, What are the impending threats behind the NRM-DP working cooperation agreement to DP as a party and the political atmosphere in the country.
Generaly, political developments resulting from a July 2005 national referendum saw Uganda transition to amulti-party system. This gave birth to a stronger opposition in parliament creating a Gorvernment projects monitoring system outside the ruling party’s gorverning body.
Over the years, the opposition has been tremendously pivotal to many national development milestones with much focus on demanding for infrastructural development, fair share of the national ‘cake’ and calling for accountability that has helped contain corruption and embezzlement among gorvernment officials.
Objective 16 states “The Parties will work together in good faith and cooperate with each other in respect of Executive and Parliamentary activities to advance these shared goals, including any public statements. The President may from time to time issue letters of expectations to Ministers and other officials from the Democratic Party and these letters will reflect the areas of policy cooperation and consultation processes required,” casts threats on the Democratic role of the opposition of which DP is part and parcel.
Further, all Democratic Party Members of parliament are bound by objective 42 of the cooperation agreement which reads,“The Democratic Party undertakes to keep full voting numbers present whenever the House is sitting where the Democratic Party has committed to support the National Resistance Movement Government and on matters of confidence and supply. The Democratic Party also undertakes to keep full voting numbers in Committee, unless otherwise agreed,”.
A section of Members of Parliament from the Democratic Party have reacted not so well to this development and have authoritively distanced themselves from the signed working cooperation agreement between the ruling NRM party and DP.
In a press conference at Parliament on Thursday, four DP MPs including Mityana South MP, Richard Lumu, Bukoto Central MP, Richard Sebamala, Buikwe South MP, Lulume Bayiga, and Kyotera County MP, John Paul Mpalanyi said that they were not party to the agreement with NRM and demanded the immediate resignation of Mao.
Buikwe South MP, Hon. Lulume Bayiga said that the management committee that endorsed the cooperation agreement is an organ not known by Democratic party’s Constitution.
“Our party President is qualified to be a Minister for Justice and he has worked his way into the NRM occupation, we wish him well. Yesterday, the media was awash with all this news. I couldn’t believe it and I took courage to call Mao and we had a long telephone conversation and he confirmed to me that indeed there had been behind the negotiations,” Lulume revealed.
Lulume also noted that he was personally happy since the reason why they have not been what they wanted to be is that their party leader had held them incommunicado with his knee on their neck and that the party couldn’t breathe.
“DP is not Mao and Mao is not DP. We are not a party to this and we remain in DP as an Opposition party. We are going to ensure that we elect another President and ensure that we draw a thick line between DP and NRM,” said Richard Sebamala, the Bukoto Central MP.
The Statements from the Democratic Party members clearly indicate a looming political volcano nearing eruption which might leave the party in turmoil. Out of the 109 Opposition MPs in the Eleventh Parliament, the Democratic Party has a total of 9 MPs.
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