The Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) yesterday unveiled its 2021 roadmap.
The party secretary general, Mr Fred Ebil, said the decision was informed by the party’s top leadership meeting that was held on Tuesday.
“The UPC party cabinet sat on Tuesday June 23, and approved the party internal roadmap and guidelines,” Mr Ebil said.
Mr Peter Walubiri, the party president in the Olara Otunu faction, said the party’s top organ was compelled to adjust their roadmap since the Electoral Commission (EC) had issued a revised roadmap.
“Before the Covid-19 outbreak, we had released a roadmap detailing the party’s activities leading to the delegate’s conference from March to July,” Mr Walubiri told the Daily Monitor.
He added: “But we now have a new roadmap from the Electoral Commission and we had to revise our own internal programming.”
Mr Walubiri, however, said the party may have to fully adhere to the party roadmap if circumstances necessitate.
“A lot will depend on how many candidates express interest. For example, if we don’t have more than one candidate in a constituency, then we may have to forego some of the internal processes such as primaries and so on and we just have that one candidate,” Mr Walubiri revealed.
Mr Walubiri also said the party is not in support of the EC’s revised roadmap, saying it is in contravention with the Constitution.
“We don’t accept that [because] it is illegal to stop people from campaigning openly. So we shall be challenging the decision by EC,” Mr Walubiri said.
However, Mr Dennis Adim Enap, a former lawyer and personal assistant to Mr Jimmy Akena, who also claims the UPC party presidency, opposed the Otunnu-faction party roadmap, saying it is illegal because it was issued by a leadership whose term of office expired last month.
“It is an illegal roadmap because the leaders that issued it don’t have the mandate to do so. They should have sought a court order to allow them to do so but they didn’t,” Mr Enap said.
Mr Enap, who is also eyeing for the party presidency, said the party’s top organ should not rely on the situation occasioned by the pandemic to operate unlawfully.
“The situation [pandemic] we are in does not make what they are doing right,” Mr Enap said.
Mr Walubiri was named President of UPC after the death of Joseph Bbosa. The late took over in 2016 when Mr Otunnu retired. Mr Walubiri’s faction has been fighting legal battles with another function led by Lira Municipality MP Akena. The matter is still in court.