DP re-writing the old script

The DP legislators accuse Mao of rebuking “all and sundry who dare raise a finger in his direction.” They also accuse their president of undermining the role of the party’s National Executive Committee as well as frustrating the functioning of all other party organs like the Parliamentary Group and the National Council.

They say Mao has instead resorted to running the party on executive decrees which have no space in the realm of DP’s constitution. For example, they say, the Party President has responded to the DP members’ agitation for political accountability by surrounding himself and the party offices with daily military and police presence.

Mao is also accused of hijacking the party restructuring and leadership renewal process and introducing a ‘sham’ electoral process with the view to benefitting his personal ambitions at the expense of the majority democratic processes within the party.

At the centre of the current impasse is the accusation that Mao wants to stand for another five year term yet he was expected to run for a maximum of two five-year terms.

“The party president and the clique around him have constituted themselves into a tribunal presiding over issues pertaining to all structures from the village, parish and district branches in direct contradiction with the party devolved structural powers.”

Sseggona said Mao’s actions have sunk the DP into a crisis that is playing the Mao led clique against the majority leaders, members, organs, branches, and sub-branches to the detriment of the party.

“As key leaders and stakeholders in the DP, we should not idly look on as the situation further deteriorates and wish to assure the entire DP fraternity that we shall stop at nothing in ensuring that order and sanity returns.”

Mao is accused of seizing the powers and the roles of the other office bearers and organs by arrogating the powers of the National Organizing Secretary, Treasurer and Publicity Secretary to his cronies.

Sulaiman Kidandala, for instance, blames the party president for the party’s woes. He accused Mao of deliberately sabotaging his job for his own selfish interests. Kidandala insists Mao is a dictator adding that he is being witch-hunted for contradicting Mao’s views in regards the party constitution.

“The maladministration in the party was orchestrated by Mao himself and his team. That meeting was illegal because you can’t convene a meeting under such circumstances, where at one point Police was part of it. Which decisions were they taking,” Kidandala said, a day after his suspension.

Sseggona said the current crisis in the party is mainly fueled by unconstitutional and selfish actions of the party president. Going forward, the MPs want Mao to desist from “his gross violations of the Constitution and decisions of the Party Organs.”

The DP legislators say the ongoing electoral process is invalid because there are no requisite Party Cards. They want the National Treasurer to facilitate the National Organizing Secretary, Sulaiman Kidandala, to perform his duties as enshrined in the Constitution.

On his part, Mao blames the current woes in his party to two things: a sensationalist national media but also the fact that most of the MPs accusing his leadership of maladministration have never liked him.

“The reason as to why I am President (of DP) is because the majority of DP members love me but the majority of those at the press conference have never loved me,” Mao said while appearing on Frontline, a current affairs television programme of NBS on the evening of Feb. 20.

Mao says the recent attacks on his person include being caricatured in the press and more seriously receiving hate mail and voice notes on his phone threatening to kill him show that his life is in at risk.

“My life is in danger; unidentified people are hanging around my house,” he said.

But Mao appeared to be skirting around the issues in the party and Sseggona who appeared on the same talk show was unmoved. “I am not fighting Norbert Mao; I am talking about principles,” Sseggona said.

Same old DP

Meanwhile, Betty Nambooze, the MP for Mukono Municipality is not surprised by the ongoing feud within her party. She says what is happening today always happens every time there is a pending election within the party. And the Organizing Secretary is always the target. At least that has been the case for the last 15 years, she says.

When Damiano Lubega was the party’s Organizing Secretary in 2005, for instance, he was acrimoniously fought by the faction that was led by Francis Bwengye until he was illegally kicked out of office. Nambooze says it became a tag of war for John Ssebaana Kizito to defeat both Nasser Ssebagala and Nobert Mao.

Five years later, in 2010, Deo Njoki was fought by a group of UYD-members who at the time were promoting Mao having won over the support of Ssebana Kizito—the then DP President General.

The Delegates Conference which took place in the eastern town of Mbale happened without the Organizing Secretary—an act which was contrary to Article 33 of the DP Constitution. The article says the powers to compile party members’ registers and preparing voter rolls are vested in the Organizing Secretary.

Interestingly, Mao was declared president and although court annulled the results of that delegates’ conference, Nambooze says, Mao and his team simply filed a notice of appeal and stayed on. In 2015, Charles Musoke Sserunjogi who was the Organising Secretary of the Mao led executive moved out to conduct registration and elections ahead of the 2016 general election.

Sserunjogi alongside Ssebuliba Mutumba, the then Buganda region president were accused of being sympathetic to Erias Lukwago who had expressed interest to stand against Mao. Mao convened NEC and promptly suspended him from Office.

Nambooze says whatever is going on in DP is not about the DP ideology; it is about dictatorship that reigns high in every institution of Uganda. Interestingly, Nambooze says despite the party’s current challenges, DP remains the best ideologically drilled political organization in the country.