The President of the People’s Development party Dr. Abed Bwanika has called for a national consultative conference between the ruling National Resistance Movement and other political parties that participated in the 2011 general elections.
Dr. Abed Bwanika
Bwanika says the results of the 2011 elections left a bitter taste in all opposition parties who complain of having lost in an unfair election.
The Electoral Commission announced President Yoweri Museveni of the NRM as the winner of the 2011 presidential polls with over 68.85 of the votes cast.
All opposition parties have described the 2011 elections as lacking the will of the people, with voter bribery, intimidation and outright ballot stuffing among the mentioned anomalies.
Some of the opposition leaders who lost led by Forum for Democratic Change President Kizza Besigye, Democratic Party president Nobert Mao, Uganda People’s Congress President Olara Otunu and Independent Sam Walter Lubega calling for mass protests against the election results.
Museveni has vowed to crush any opposition protests, with a recent one organized in the city on Wednesday well foiled by heavy police and military deployments.
But Bwanika says instead of declaring military might and a winner takes it all attitude, the government should seek for ways of listening to the genuine grievances of the opposition.
He says a national consultative conference would be in order so that all political parties contribute to the drawing of the way forward on elections and other political reforms necessary for improving democracy and governance in Uganda.