The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) Secretary General, Nathan Nandala Mafabi, says he will thwart any attempts to skew party presidential elections in favour of any of the candidates in the race.
FDC president Mugisha Muntu, who defeated Nandala in the 2012 elections, is the race to retain the top seat of Uganda’s biggest opposition party. He faces competition from four other candidates who include former Kumi County Member of Parliament Patrick Oboi Amuriat.
Others in the race, nominated over a two-day exercise, are Kawempe South MP Mubarak Munyagwa, FDC Youth wing chief mobiliser Moses Byamugisha and Dan Matsiko Malcom, a businessman-cum-politician.
At least four top FDC officials escorted Amuriat to his nomination today. National chairman Wasswa Birigwa, former leader of opposition Wafula Oguttu, Rugaba Division Mayor Joyce Ssebugwawo and Ingrid Turinawe, the party’s national mobiliser, were among hundreds of supporters who witnessed Amuriat’s nomination on Tuesday. Nandala himself is believed to be behind Amuriat, albeit quietly.
Many within the FDC anticipated that Nandala would challenge Muntu as he did in 2012 but he never picked nomination forms. But the self-confident Budadiri West legislator says he will play a critical role in the coming elections.
For instance, he claims that there will be no rigging this time as it happened in 2012. Nandala, who in 2012 claimed the elections were neither free nor fair, says he will ensure that no dead voter appears in the register and all people supposed to vote will be registered. Over 1,300 delegates will cast votes on November 17th to elect the party president.
Mafabi argues that the role of the secretary general is to ensure that elections are free and fair.
Major General Muntu defeated Nandala in 2012 with 393 votes as the latter polled 361 votes. Dissatisfied with the outcome, Nandala filed a petition to the party’s national executive committee, complaining about “serious irregularities without which his team would have won.”
Nandala’s group complained about multiple voting allegations claiming it was engineered by Alice Alaso, the then party’s secretary general and former Serere Woman MP. Fast forward to 2017 and, as Secretary General, Nandala is chest-thumping promising to thwart any elections anomaly.
