A few months ago, there was a by-election in Mbale to replace a man who said he had lost interest in Ugandan politics although it was later said that he had cut a deal with the ruling NRM after its chairman revealed that he had agreed to financially contribute to the former MP's further education.

Immediately, our invaluable collective propagandists and agitators in the media went into overdrive analysing how the race was for the NRM to lose. But losing it they did. Reason? They failed to field a strong and competitive candidate.

The one the voters preferred was not the one the party managers wanted. And because none was prepared to stand down for the other, they both remained in the race, one as a party candidate while the other decided to stand as an independent candidate.

At this point it was clear to all and sundry, that the hyped NRM victory was not going to happen because their votes were going to be divided giving parties which had fielded a single candidate an advantage. The FDC candidate yanked the election as we all know increasing the number of opposition in parliament.

This week we had another election for Mukono North Member of Parliament. The earlier election had been cancelled on grounds of voting malpractices. And new elections were held in Mukono this week.

Although the commentators had branded it a two-horse race, it was actually a lamb-lion race, the lion being Nambooze, a fierce political activist, while the lamb was a retired reverend Bakaluba Mukasa.  

Knowing he had no chance against a popular Nambooze, the meek reverend had on his own accord, decided to relocate his base to another constituency of Mukono where he thought he could stand a chance.

But his managers could not let a man go. They dragged him back into a constituency he had already hinted he was abandoning, although there were better candidates from the same party who could have given Nambooze a run for her money. The rest is now recent history.

Now, in football, when a club performs badly during the season, the expected is that the owners of the club will change a coach and will buy new and usually better players.

Assuming that the NRM had leant lessons from their losses, common sense would dictate a change in management if the party has to halt their losing trend.

Political parties in a democracy exist to reflect the desires and needs of those people who support them. In a multiparty political system, the desire of the supporters is for their party to win. When it doesn't, and nothing is done about it with a view of getting their party to win, the voters will withdraw or withhold their support.

That said, did the NRM managers really think their candidate would defeat Nambooze? If they did, they have no business running a political party and therefore deserve to be sacked.

NRM is behaving like Arsenal FC. They have the resources. They don't want to use them and they are both paying a heavy price. Are the other parties listening?

May 28 - June 3, 2010 blog comments powered by Disqus

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