The opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) have denied ever deciding to boycott the appointment of the Parliamentary Leader of Opposition (LoP).
The move which notably tested the consistency of the party leadership at Najjanankumbi last week, was being pushed vigorously by a section of party leaders, who believed that appointing a Leader of Opposition would imply accepting defeat in the February Presidential elections.
The party now claims that while this matter came up for discussion, it wasn’t their official stance.
FDC’s Spokesperson Semujju Nganda, who announced at the start of last week that the party would not be appointing a Leader of Opposition but the leader of the party in Parliament, said over the weekend that the media misconstrued his message.
“We have not had a meeting at which we took a decision as a party that we should not choose leaders in Parliament,” he said, explaining that boycotting the LoP office was a minority stance which was ignored.
“In a party, except if you are running a military outfit like the NRM, you will have many views and they will be expressed publicly,” he said.
Besides, added Nganda, attempting to deny President Museveni legitimacy by rejecting to appoint the LoP would be futile.
He noted, “There are some politicians who believe that they can deny Museveni legitimacy by doing ABCD. But in truth, Museveni doesn’t need legitimacy, otherwise he wouldn’t be inviting President Bashir, Mugabe and Nguema and insulting everyone at a function he is swearing in.”
While appearing on the Capital Gang show on Saturday, FDC’s Hon. Abdu Katuntu revealed that while some leaders mostly attached to the now jailed former Presidential candidate Col Dr Kizza Besigye wanted the party to reject the LoP office, the final decision was taken by the FDC Parliamentary caucus and the National Executive Committee.
“This subject however, came up in our meetings for discussion and there were lengthy conversations on it,” he said. “There were members who quite strongly believed that it was not correct to choose a Leader of Opposition and had their reasons, but they were the minority.”
The party later on Thursday announced the Kasese Woman Member of Parliament Hon Winnie Kiiza as the new Leader of Opposition against the wish of the dissenting group led by the party Chief Mobilizer Mrs. Ingrid Turinawe, who took to social media to condemn the party President Gen Mugisha Muntu’s decision.
She posted, “Nobody can concede defeat on behalf of any candidate! Nobody! FDC sponsored a candidate but it is or was not a candidate! Not even party president Gen. Muntu or any other leader! Not me, Not you! Dr. Besigye was the candidate in the presidential race. He speaks for himself. Ugandans voted him. He won elections and was sworn in. Yes, he is in prison but he will be out soonest. He is our president until he guides us otherwise.”
FDC in 2012 got entangled in a similar debate on whether or not to send representatives to the East African Legislative Assembly. In the process they delayed to send in the list of nominees and were left out.
This could have been the same case with Parliament according to the National Resistance Movement party which revealed last week it was waiting to take action.
The ruling party’s Deputy Spokesperson Ofwono Opondo said on Saturday, “If FDC had maintained the stance of their radical extremists…what befell them at EALA would have happened.”
He revealed, “In the NRM we were mooting the idea of amending the constitution to redefine the Leader of Opposition and open up this office to the Independents. There are 59 independent MPs in Parliament, more than all the opposition MPs combined.”
FDC’s Katuntu however, said that the opposition party would not repeat the same mistake.
“The reason we learn history is to pick lessons from it. People make mistakes and learn from them. The biggest lesson we learnt with that (EALA) debacle is how to associate with other political parties.”