UPDF must remain nonpartisan during elections

MILITARISM

As we enter the year of electioneering, members of the high command of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces have launched their threats to the population with talks of potential insecurity. UPDF must strive to be professional despite the force’s history which adheres them to their founder and the incumbent, who is also a likely candidate in the same elections of 2021.

State Minister for security, Gen Elly Tumwine, Commander of Land Forces, Brig. Peter Elwelu and recently a Capt. Sula Serunjogi has vowed that Presidential hopeful, Hon. Robert S. Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine will never be the commander-in-chief of the UPDF (meaning President of Uganda).

Elsewhere, active army commanders skirt the country to campaign for the incumbent, Mr. Museveni using military facilitation and security apparatuses to intimidate, illegally detain and threaten voters. 

On the village paths, the regime pours its military adorned in full war gears and armed to the teeth to scare the population from voting for any other candidates than Mr. Museveni.

This militarization of every aspect of the state and state functions is the distinguishing feature of this military dictatorship. While it is hard to pinpoint any one specific activity of the UPDF which is professional, the population understands clearly that the UPDF is a personal outfit for protecting Mr. Museveni’s power.

Ironically, the NRM should have been very proud of Ugandans coming out in large numbers to participate and vote in elections peacefully. They have always pointed at the 1980 elections as one that deprived people of their true voices in a messy election. Instead, the UPDF makes voting and elections very traumatic by creating violence. It is mainly during elections (and riots) when the army comes out in full war mode to intimidate, shoot, kill, abduct, torture, mime or abuse civilians. Sometimes we come to think that the UPDF is a redundant army of sorts.

Professionalism is a key aspect of every profession which permits safeguards in its functions and a minimum expectation upon which its public image is branded. In the case of the UPDF, like their sister cadre institutions, the Police and Judiciary, they appear blunt when dealing with other threats such as floods, landslides, terrorism, but sharp and firm when dealing with any political circumstances that threaten the status quo.

With 2021 general elections coming up, many military officers will continue to remind us that only Museveni will remain commander-in-chief of the UPDF. This revelation is important to us given the history of the force and the rank files of its key officers. Like the armies before it, the UPDF has demonstrated a great propensity for ethnocentrism, something they will quickly deny and accuse whoever points it out as practicing sectarianism.

Ugandans should worry because by the UPDF ring-fencing the Presidency for Mr. Museveni after 34 years, our democracy becomes stale – meaningless. Such statements also undermine any pretense that Uganda is a democracy and that Mr. Museveni is elected regularly to retain his seat.

The chaotic nature of the elections in which the militarized police conjure up with paramilitary and security operatives to coerce the population already brings little hope for democracy. The unfortunate implication is that UPDF is constantly reminding Ugandans that the only way to access power is by launching a war. Clever enough, they have cut down the bushes, appropriated or sold the land into sugar cane and tea estates making it difficult to find a bush.

Given the level of peace that the UPDF claims to have established in Uganda, a professional force should remain nonpartisan and keep out of civil affairs. The force should withdraw its members from Parliament, embark on professionalizing and nationalizing its force ranks, and where possible, focus its attention on protecting the integrity of the state and territory from people who are deformed by power.

End.

Effect Reforms in Electoral laws

ELECTIONS 2021

Uganda will hold a general election in February 2021. These elections require urgent reforms in its laws before it happens.

An election year in Uganda is usually full of tragedies. The military regime in power has made elections synonymous with brutality, violence, intimidation, torture, hate propaganda and fearmongering such that the average Ugandan sincerely dread the fatigue of these elections.

Mr. Museveni does not actually depend on elections or needs one to stay in power. They only use violent and meaningless elections as a ritual to renew, validate and legitimize their dictatorship.

The irony is that Ugandans know that an event of the election alone does not define democracy. Democracy is a function of liberalism that comes with a full set of requisites rights and freedoms - a free press, liberty, freedoms of expression, association, worship and innovation and respect for human rights and rule of law. Most of these have been constrained under a tight leash by the regime. Without these rights and freedoms, the Museveni-type democracy is rightfully a total mockery.

In addition, a democratic society must have functioning democratic institutions and a supporting democratic culture of accountability, transparency, and consultation as its defining marks. In Uganda, Mr. Museveni is the defining institution of the state and the state is him. In this case, democracy precludes him or his position at the helm of the nation.

A dictatorship is not hard to identify. There is that one dominant leader who refuses to go away controls the ruling party and the country’s assets. His government controls all aspects of the state and often controls, bans or tightly monitors opposing groups and their meetings. The disregard for individual citizens' rights and the displacement of indigenous citizen's rights for loyal foreigners prevails. Mr. Museveni's use of archaic, colonial and unjust laws, policies, torture and spies to control every aspect of people's lives looms large over every mode of cultural expression - radio, cinema, newspapers, and television.

The potential showdown in a violent election makes many of Ugandans disinterested in the politics and leadership of Uganda.

Further, utterances from the military, the main constituency of the ruling dictatorship, have already pre-determined the 2021 election outcomes.

Ugandans can vie and win elections at every level except the Presidency. This position is ring-fenced for Mr. Museveni.

Somehow, The US, UK, and EU are satisfied that Uganda is a democracy. This double standard has lowered the passing grade for Uganda so low such that it has eroded the value of human rights and fundamental freedoms as a quid pro quo for their interests in the region.

In the meantime, Mr. Museveni's opponents are not having it easy. They have faced the full brutality of the militarized Police. Many are now garrisoned, their businesses disabled, and sources of income placed under strict regime's sanctions.

  

The consistent conduct of Uganda Police removes any pretense of impartiality as a legitimate authority over law and order. The Police are overtly disruptive - serve to constrain and humiliate opposition elements.

The story is the same as the so-called "Independent" Electoral Commission. Its ranks and rung are filled with biased cadre officers of the ruling party.

These circumstances are dire and make elections in Uganda an embarrassment. Unfortunately, the "meal card" politics within the opposition compels some to legitimize this tragicomedy by participating in it.

The most respectable thing to do is for opposition to boycott any violent and irregular elections. The first major step is for the Opposition to demand comprehensive reforms in the electoral laws.

These reforms should specify the role of the Police, the Army, and Paramilitary groups during these elections. Most importantly, the Electoral Commissioners should comprise representatives from all Parties elected to Parliament.

 End.