It is glaring from the high cost of nomination fees imposed by the DP’s Secretary General that the commercialization of party politics is fast becoming an indelible feature of Uganda’s long-serving party, DP.
The recent fix and announcement of nomination fees by Siranda Gerald to the positions of the Party President, National Chairperson and its Vice to 10m UGX, Secretary General and his deputies 5M UGX and other substantive positions ranging between 1m – 3m UGX without proper consultation to the NEC members shows it all.
The outrageous costs of nomination fees in the Democratic Party will reinforce 2 axiomatic propositions.
1. The manner with which Gerald Siranda increased the nomination fees with sybaritic excitement reinforces the Democratic Party as a rent-seeking enterprise with no regard for inclusive democratic participation.
2. It affirms the death of the founders’ ideological variations amongst low earners or commoners (mucuna mola) in Uganda. In other words, he (Siranda) and his close allies in the DP leadership seem to subscribe to the NRM’s belief that money, being ‘the mother’s milk of politics,’ should define leadership recruitment.
Siranda and his peers need to know that fair competition is the hallmark of candidate recruitment in the Democratic Party. Imposing high costs on nomination fees limits accessibility to political entrepreneurs in DP with deep pockets and wide patronage networks with the NRM, thereby shrinking the democratic space in DP.
When money starts to shape politics, ideologies and values in DP, it assaults the democratic right of many DP members to contest for party offices, especially where it meant by Siranda that it will pre-determine who qualifies to participate in DPs leadership renewal process. As the DP’s Secretary General Siranda noted, “if you don’t have 10m UGX, you have no business with becoming party president”. The implication is the evolution of an old party like DP that is governed and exists to serve wealthy elites at the detriment of popular participation. Inertia towards electoral participation is a knock-on effect of a commercialized leadership process that some of Siranda’s sitting top NEC members tend to ignore. As long as money, not competence, character, or popular appeal, operates as a fundamental variable in leadership renewal of the Democratic Party, many viable and credible members of DP will refrain from participating in DP’s leadership process because commercialized processes are more likely to produce unpopular, unaccountable, and incompetent leaders of the Party.
Needless to say, a highly monetized process hamstrings the aspirations of many leaders including the youth and it infringes on the spirit behind the “We can still make DP great”.
To a large extent, the justification advanced by Siranda for the high cost of nomination fees is implausible. Siranda’s claims seem to allude that the high monetary value placed on the nomination fees is a due diligence measure to distinguish pretenders from contenders.
In a recent stakeholders and leaders dialogue for western region DP leaders in Mbarara City which was hosted by senior DP and icon member of DP in Ankore, Ms. Edith Byanyima, and and other senior party members and former DP NEC leaders like Mzee Katabaazi, some current sitting DP districts leaders argued the exorbitant cost of fees is attributed to scare off many prospect leaders who would wish to take up national leadership of the party, giving ways to Mao, Siranda and his incompentent friends to remain in the position of leadership. They outrightly rejected the fees and vowed to petition the DP National Chairperson to call for an extra-ordinary National Council meeting to review the nomination fees announced by Siranda.
The reliance on the high cost of nomination fees as a due diligence measure indicts DP for failing to invest in long-term leadership recruitment, development, retention, and transition.
Hon. Dr. Lulume Bayigga, a DP MP and one eyeing to replace Hon. Mao in the next party leadership who was a special guest at the DP western region stakeholders and district leaders meeting noted in his speech to the participants, that “If DP maintain consistent, inclusive, and structured engagements with party members on policy, leadership, and governance, it can easily address the leadership recruitment question. Through strategic engagement opportunities, leadership gap, philosophy and values of DP can be espoused and inculcated into party members ahead of the internal electioneering season”. Dr. Lulume further said,
prospective contenders can be identified, groomed, and empowered to contest for party nominations. It is counterproductive for DP to wait for the election commission to ring the election bell before engaging in leadership recruitment. The true test of a party’s commitment to decommercializing internal processes is its long-term leadership recruitment approach and strategy.
Earlier before, Counsel Elitia Elia, the DP Vice-Presidetn Northern region who is also an aspirant to the DP party presidency furthermore noted that “the over-dependence on revenue from the nomination fees to run party affairs exposes the poor health of DP”, said Elitia Elia in his petition to the Secretary General regarding the nomination fees.
” _Ideally, political parties should fund candidates, but the reverse is the case in DP, where aspirants are now demanded to fund DP_ “, noted an angry DP leader at the Western region dialogue meeting in Mbarara City.
The introduction of government-political party financing to DP through the EC has not been effectively explored by DP for a plethora of reasons.
1. DP has failed to maintain and develop an accurate, credible, and updated register of members, making it impracticable to mobilize membership dues and levies. In the past, DP used to be funded thoroughly and regularly by membership dues and levies, but in recent times, the preference of DP leaders now is to generate ‘quick money’ during party primaries and internal elections. This condition serves the interest of godfathers and moneybags because it makes many members mainly those aspiring for party positions and those intending to stand on DP ticket subservient and captives of entrenched interests or financiers of DP, leading to the ‘ capture’ of the internal electoral process—
2. Weak internal control mechanisms and poor organizational culture in DP have been cited several times by members of the National Council and NEC, the recent being in Soroti NC meeting where the Chairman of the DP Finance Committee (Dr. Mayambala Kiwanuka) himself was far from the finance process and accountability of the DP finances. The finance report which was read to members at the NEC indicates that DP has failed to maintain proper financial records, fixed assets register, and an undertake to periodic audits of accounts. Many DP assets including the Printery machines which was procuded by the party 7 years ago vanished in thin air.
Without a proper financial management system, DP can’t mobilise and manage funds without such a high degree of transparency and accountability by Siranda and his team.
I think it is important to join hands with DP leaders from the Western region and West Nile, to reject the exorbitant nomination fees that Siranda imposed on all aspirants and call for the immediate sitting of the Extra-Ordinary National Council to determine the fair and affordable nomination fees to each and every position of the National party leadership.
