The Chairperson of the Interparty Organization for Dialogue (IPOD) has announced that Yoweri Tibuhaburwa Kaguta Museveni the National Resistance Movement Party Chairman will on Friday March 5, 2021 anchor the summit at Kololo Independence grounds.
However, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has since announced they won’t be attending the dialogue due to the gross human rights violations that have taken place before and after the January 14, 2021 Polls.
Speaking to the press on Monday, Party Spokesperson Ibrahim Semujju Nganda said the party will not attend the meeting that will be chaired by President Yoweri Museveni.
“As a party, we are concerned with the deterioration of human rights observance in Uganda, the replacement of our courts with the court-martial and the cover-up by Mr. Museveni,” Semujju Nganda said.
IPOD brings together parties with representation in Parliament to dialogue on issues affecting the country and political players in the country.
Members of IPOD are drawn from the ruling party National Resistance Movement-NRM, Democratic Party-DP, Forum for Democratic Change-FDC, Justice Forum-JEEMA and Uganda People’s Congress-UPC.
Rt Hon Justine Kasule Lumumba who is the Chairperson of the IPOD Council and the NRM party Secretary-General, the third ordinary summit of leaders will be held under the theme: “Dialogue for National Cohesion.”
With a handful of people expected due to Covid pandemic SOPs, the attendance will entail presidents and Secretaries-General of DP, JEEMA, NRM and UPC, the political parties with representation in Parliament.
The summit will be convened and hosted by Museveni. The summit will among other things review the previous elections and what needs to be done going forward.
“As you may know, the just concluded general elections witnessed high levels unprecedented violence, lawlessness, riots, protests, hate speech along tribal and sectarian lines, misinformation and disinformation among many other electoral vices that continue to undermine our electoral democracy and threaten national security and social cohesion,” Lumumba states in the letter.
Other issues related to expanding the democratic space, upholding the rule of law, protection of the human rights of Ugandan citizens, enhancing electoral integrity and reviewing the role of security agencies in electoral processes will be discussed.
The summit is also expected to review and make a follow up on the previous summit resolutions including but not limited to the agreed position on the effective implementation of the Public Order Management Act (POMA). In line with the IPOD Memorandum of Understanding, which provides for the IPOD Council of Secretaries General to periodically organize a summit of leaders at least once every six months.
