Can DP registration drive revive the party?

The registration exercise is among the series of pre-activities ahead of the party’s national delegates’ conference slated for December. However, the activity that would have united members has instead divided them, with a section of leaders shunning it.

According to Mr Herbert Rutagwera, the DP national organising secretary, the exercise was endorsed in May by the party national council and aims at rebuilding the party structures and organs by electing party leaders from village to national level.

“This is an opportunity for leaders to mend fences and we all pull in the same direction. I am sure those who are contesting the exercise don’t wish our party well,” he says.

DP dominated Uganda’s Opposition landscape until it lost to the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) ahead of independence in 1962. In early 2000, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) also uprooted it from the front seat.

Internal fights

Since then, DP has been rocked by endless internal fights and accusations of under–the–table dealings of some leaders with the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM).

This state of affairs has split the party into factions and endless bickering, forcing several prominent members to defect to other parties, including NRM, FDC and NUP.

The signing of the cooperation agreement between DP leadership led by party president Norbert Mao and President Museveni in July 2022 widened a sharp divide which cracked the party further.

DP secretary general Gerald Siranda says the ongoing registration exercise has been successful in other regions, except in Buganda.

“This is an official party programme and it will be summed up with the national delegates’ conference in December. All responsible party organs are yet to sit to finalise this arrangement,” he says.

Mr Siranda says DP members who don’t want to take part in the exercise will not divert them from their quest to invigorate the party. “For us, we have set off. Those who don’t look far will find us ahead,” he says.

Mr George Fred Kagimu, the DP vice president for Buganda, says the time is now for all DP members and leaders to work for party cohesion and bury their hatches.

“I hear it is the cooperation agreement [between DP and NRM] which is causing chaos here [in Buganda], but in other regions that issue has not deterred DP members from mobilising for the party. I urge our people here to do the same because Buganda as a whole is known to be our cornerstone. Mao is a leader who can’t stay forever, he will soon leave, but our party shall remain,” he says.

He says his target is to have at least 30 MPs from Buganda on the DP ticket in the next general election.

“This is very possible if we work together, even other regions are working towards the same and at the end DP will become great again,” he emphasises.

However, some DP stalwarts seem to be losing hope in their party due to the unending internal bickering.

“DP is deep in their hearts because of its strong ideology. But lack of cohesion is killing our party. Membership registration used to be a smooth exercise, but it is becoming hard to convince the youth to join DP,” Ms Grace Nakayinga, a councillor at Lwankoni sub-county in Kyotera District, complains.

Mr Ahmed Kukumba, a party member from Kyannamukaaka Sub-county, Masaka District, says the current party leadership has failed to restore DP’s past glory.

“I’m participating in this exercise to contribute to the process of rebuilding my party since we’re dissatisfied with our top leadership. It’s through an election that we can oust them and have a new beginning,” he says.

Protests

Mr Richard Lumu, the Mityana South legislator, accuses the party’s top leadership of making mistakes which he says have weakened the party.

“If you want to lift DP, stop quarrelling. Let’s clean our house and those who are no longer helping the party should step aside,” he says.

He says he doesn’t see DP winning the presidency in 2026 or 2031 if the current internal contradictions are not swiftly resolved.

Buikwe South legislator Michael Lulume says whatever is being done by Mr Mao’s leadership is an illegality.

He reveals that there are two membership registration exercises going on concurrently; one conducted by the party leadership and the other by the DP parliamentary group which he describes as the legitimate one.

Worse still, even the parliamentary group is divided, with some members like Geoffrey Okello and Peter Okot of Nwoya East and Tochi counties respectively, seeming to be comfortable with the DP–NRM cooperation agreement.

Mr Lulume adds that by signing the cooperation agreement with NRM, both Mr Mao and Mr Siranda crossed to NRM and their continued stay in leadership is in bad faith.

“There is a court ruling by Justice Phillip Odoki that nullified his leadership for violating the party constitution in the process of their election. Regrettably, they’ve adamantly remained in office. Let members know that DP will completely die if Mao keeps at the helm of our party,” he says.

However, Mr Mao’s camp says the ruling has been overtaken by events.

Mr Dick Lukyamuzi, the representative of Greater Masaka on the DP national executive council, urges DP leaders not to relent in the quest to invigorate the party.

“The ongoing mudslinging targeting some of our colleagues from other parties where they sought refuge alerts us to remain here [in DP] and correct the mistakes from within because we’re well-grounded and no wave can finish us,” he says.

Similar sentiments were shared by Mr Mao during the party’s weekly press conference in Kampala recently, where he extended an olive branch to DP members who defected to other parties to “return home”.

“All those people who left DP are free to return. They are welcome, we are soon holding a consultative meeting to discuss flag bearers for 2026, so it is important to use this opportunity to return home,” he said.

The DP national treasurer and former Woman legislator for Masaka District, Ms Mary Babirye Kabanda, says DP is the only party that has stood the test of time.

“We can’t deny the fact that the party has had some challenges in 70 years of its existence, but we can’t allow it to sink during our lifetime. I implore all party leaders to look for our people and register them as well as persuade new ones to join DP,” she says.

Dr Sam Kazibwe, a political scientist, says the ongoing membership registration exercise in DP will not unite party members.

“I’m not seeing this exercise make any meaningful impact because it does not seem to involve even 80 percent of the elected leaders like MPs. It’s the same time when even other party members are running parallel registration exercises,” he says.

He reiterates that the continued concealing of the cooperation agreement by top party leaders will continue haunting DP.

“The agreement itself would not be a challenge because alliances and such moves are part of the game and not a sacrilegious sin in politics. But failure to publicise it raises questions among members and breaks trust,” he says

DP, which traditionally had the central region as its stronghold, has in the past five years lost its political base due to unending internal bickering. In the run-up to the 2021 General Election, party stalwarts such as former Leader of Opposition in Parliament Mathias Mpuuga and a host of legislators cross to the NUP.

Although DP had 15 MPs in the 10th Parliament, this number reduced to nine after 2021, of which seven are from the central region.