Court order puts brakes on FDC delegates meet

“By consent of counsel for the respondents, an interim injunction doth issue, halting and restraining the respondents jointly and severally and or their servants, agents, employees, transferees and or any other person or body who may be claiming or acting under their instructions from holding Extraordinary National delegates Conference of the Forum for Democratic Change scheduled for September 19,” Justice Nambayo ruled.

The respondents in the case are the FDC; Mr Patrick Oboi Amuriat, its current president; and Mr Nathan Nandala Mafabi, its secretary general. Three party members, including Arafat Ntale Mwanja, Jamal Wante and Marlick Ssazi, sued the trio for excluding the responsible offices from the preparation and organisation of the aforesaid conference.

The three filed a lawsuit before the High Court Civil Division, challenging the decision of the FDC, Mr Amuriat and Mr Mafabi for calling the impugned conference. Fixing the delegates conference for September 19, the group contended, contravenes Section 10 of the Political Parties and other Organisations Act No.18 of 2005.

Arguing that the clumsy manner in which the conference has been scheduled will subject the party to irreparable damage and loss, the group further wants the court to compel the appropriate organs and offices of FDC to fully comply with the law.

“The party has not updated its register of members after the election of new office bearers up to district level to be based on at the said extraordinary National delegates conference,” reads in part the court documents.

Amuriat, Birigwa
Meanwhile, there appears to be love lost between the FDC president and his national chairman.

On Thursday, Mr Amuriat wrote to Mr Wasswa Birigwa, asking the party’s national chairman to “show cause why I should not refer you to the Committee on Discipline.” 

Mr Amuriat said: “Petitions by Executive Committee members from 113 districts [have] cause[d] me to act to restrain you from further mismanagement of party business.”

Mr Birigwa called the September 19 delegates conference in his capacity as national chairman, but now Mr Amuriat says he “will painfully … refer [Mr Birigwa] to the Committee on Discipline and appoint an acting chairman pending the decision of the relevant organ of the party” in the event that his adversary doesn’t relent.

In his September 14 letter to Mr Birigwa, the FDC president raised five concerns he has about the party’s national chairman. These include “meeting with groups hostile towards the party without the knowledge of the party[’s] national executive.”

Mr Birigwa is also accused of “undermining the authority and resolutions of the National Council sitting on July 28, 2023[;] unilaterally suspending elections approved by the 15th National Council[;] unilaterally calling for an Extraordinary National Delegates Conference[;] directly involving yourself in raising funds without knowledge of the party treasurer[;] usurping powers given to the secretary general[;] creating dissenting centres of power[;] shunning calls from the Working Committee of the National Executive Committee[;] and failing to convene a National Delegates Conference.”

“By party protocol, the president cannot refer anything to anybody except to the Delegates conference, which he has gone ahead to cancel,” Ms Proscovia Salaamu-Musumba, a party founding member, said, adding, “The [party’s] constitution is very clear who has authority over who. It is the party chairman who has authority over the president and not vice versa. It is [an] abuse of his office to even refer to the chairman that way.”

Ms Salaamu-Musumba further said: “This constitution was structured in such a way that there is sharing of power towards the office of the chairman and the National Council and National delegates and the president is in charge of the National Executive Committee.”