Walubiri’s UPC faction to issue parallel election roadmap

Kampala, Uganda  | THE INDEPENDENT |  The Uganda People’s Congress- UPC faction under Peter Walubiri plans to issue a parallel road for their party primaries.

This comes after the UPC faction led by Jimmy Akena, the Lira Municipality MP embarked on preparations for the 2021 elections last year with an update of the party district registers.

However, Walubiri says Akena and his group are not UPC members to determine the party road-map. Justice Yasin Nyanzi ruled against Akena’s leadership in 2016.

According to Walubiri, Akena forcefully took over the UPC party offices at Uganda House despite the court ruling.

Walubiri, who heads a group of UPC members opposed to Akena’s leadership, assumed the party leadership in October 2019 following the death of Joseph Bbosa.

He says that since October they have concluded a census building exercise to establish the status of party structures and membership both physically and politically.

According to Walubiri, they still have a strong footing. Without giving specific dates, Walubiri said they will soon issue a roadmap for internal elections and selection of their party candidates for the 2021 general elections.

He disclosed that they have already identified prospective candidates and encourage others to express interest in the political processes as election drew near.

Asked if he could reach out to the Akena’s group for reconciliation to boost the party strength ahead of the 2021 elections, Walubiri said they can’t, but hastened to add that would cooperate should Akena reach out.

However, the Akena led faction says they will not divert from their roadmap issued in 2019. Their spokesperson, Michael Osinde says they have concluded the update of the party registers and set for the delegates conference come end of March.

Osinde says during the conference they will decide on who to hold the party flag and or join the opposition coalition led by the Democratic Party-DP.  There has been an ongoing campaign led by DP for the opposition to front joint candidates in the 2021 elections.

Asked if they are ready to reconcile with Walubiri’s group to boost their chances ahead of the election, Osinde said no. “Walubiri is just an individual who is trying to disorganize the party. We cannot reach out to him, he has no people I even doubt if he is UPC,” said Osinde in a phone Interview with URN.

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URN