Four political parties have so far signed the new Memorandum of Understanding-MoU under the Interparty Organization for Dialogue- IPOD.
The parties include the National Resistance Movement -NRM, Justice Forum Party-JEEMA, Democratic Party-DP, and the People’s Progressive Party-PPP which is joining the IPOD for the first time having secured a seat in Parliament during the 2021 general elections.
Leadership in IPOD is rotational among member parties based on alphabetical order and lasts six months. When the previous MoU expired, the NRM was still the Head of IPOD and it was decided by the parties that NRM continues to lead through the transition period. Last year, the member parties embarked on a process of drafting a new MoU.
Frank Rusa, the Executive Secretary of IPOD, who also doubles as the Country Representative of IPOD funders, the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy-NIMD says that they have the final MoU which will be unveiled in September and be operationalized immediately. The MoU will run from 2022 to 2026.
Rusa says that the FDC and UPC are yet to sign the MoU. According to Rusa, the FDC President communicated that the party was conducting Internal consultations on whether to continue being part of IPOD while the UPC still has reservations based on IPOD resolutions pending implementation.
The FDC Spokesperson, Kira Municipality Member of Parliament Ibrahim Semujju Nganda says that the appropriate organs of the party shall take the final decision on whether to sign the new MoU.
“If the other parties have signed, it cannot be the resolution of the FDC to sign or not to sign. We have had issues with IPOD before one time we actually excused ourselves. So we will carefully study whether IPOD still makes sense and then we’ll communicate to the other parties” said Semujju in an interview with the URN.
FDC has often accused the NRM of failing to implement the resolutions passed by IPOD through the Council of Secretaries General and the Summit, of top heads of Political Parties. One of the resolutions regards the Public Order Management Act POMA 2013, an order by the government to stop members of the opposition from holding large meetings.
The contested issue was whether the law requires organizers of meetings to seek permission from police or that they merely inform them. It was decided in the summit that regulations for the implementation of the Act be drafted.
The Council of Secretaries-General made the draft and submitted the same to the office of the Prime Minister-OPM. The regulations were submitted to the security council for perusal and until now, no conclusion has been reached by the government on the same.
UPC Secretary General Fred Ebil, says without detail that UPC is part of IPOD but couldn’t dismiss the fact that UPC hasn’t yet signed the MoU.
Rusa says that the National Unity Platform-NUP party, which is the largest opposition party in Parliament has reiterated its decision to refrain from the IPOD which it accuses of being a mere association with people who occasionally meet and share a cup of tea and not deliver on any meaningful issues affecting the people of Uganda. NUP says the NRM doesn’t respect democracy.
But Rusa says the new MoU introduces a resolution implementation committee which is intended to follow up on resolutions taken by the IPOD parties such that they are implemented by the responsible organs of the government.
The JEEMA Secretary General Muhammad Kateregga has in the past said that the party is committed to dialogue and that with the establishment of the resolution implementation committee, the frustrations associated with failure by the government to implement IPOD resolutions shall cease.
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