The National Resistance Movement Party National Chairman will this week host the Interparty Organization for Dialogue (IPOD).
According to a letter written by the Chairperson of the IPOD Council who is also the NRM party Secretary General, Rt Hon Justine Kasule Lumumba, the third ordinary summit of leaders is scheduled to take place on Friday, March 05, 2021 under the theme: “Dialogue for National Cohesion”.
“Due to the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic and the preventive guidelines in place, the summit shall take place at Kololo Independence grounds, Kampala starting at 11:00am,” the letter reads in part. With a handful of people expected due to covid pandemic SOPs, the attendance will entail presidents and Secretaries General of the Democratic Party (DP), Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Justice Forum (JEEMA), National Resistance Movement (NRM) and Uganda People’s Congress (UPC), the political parties with representation in Parliament.
This particular summit will be convened and hosted by the President of Uganda who is also the National Chairman of NRM and current Chairperson of the Summit. 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.
She adds that, it is the duty and responsibility of political leaders to contribute meaningfully to a process that can generate solutions to the existing political challenges of the time. Adding that, it is against that background that the chairman H.E Gen. Yoweri Museveni agreed to convene the summit of leaders.
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.
The February 23, 2021 meeting therefore resolved to organize this summit with a view to dealing with the current political challenges that the country is faced with.
IPOD was formed in 2010 by the political parties represented in parliament. Its mandated to consolidate multi-party democracy through dialogue.
