By Lawrence Mayambala
The phenomenon of low voter turnout continues to puzzle many Ugandans. When Jajja Museveni boldly stated that the bulk of the abstainees were NRM, some observers thought it was a big joke!
Far from it and this is why:
The frenzy and enthusiasm that characterizes the NRM internal elections is well documented.
Each of the 72,000 villages which constitute the NRM polling stations, suddenly become a
beehives of activity during the NRM primaries. The irresistible frenzy often sucks in known members of the opposition.
Unfortunately, the NRM Electoral Commission fails to rise to the occasion. The administrative ill-preparation of the internal electoral body leads to sudden anticlimax.
The incompetence, acrimony, chaos, rigging and deaths leave very many party faithfuls hugely disappointed.
What compounds this sad situation is the absence of inbuilt mechanisms of resolving the resultant contradictions.
No political counselling, no adequate reaching out to the affected players especially those who are outrightly rigged out of this internal process.
The only available redress is the hurriedly assembled tribunal of lawyers that acts more or less like our traditional courts. It is adversarial in nature with clear appellate structure. It is thus incapable of promoting the much needed internal harmony and healing to the affected NRM members.
It is against such background that the NRM transitions into the national campaigns, with millions of its members, candidates and their followers bruised in the internal processes largely unattended to.
It is this highly probable that these disgruntled party members form the biggest chunk of the abstainees in the general elections.
Staying away becomes their way of pushing back and protesting against a flawed system in their own party.
For them, it’s a milder option than switching allegiance all together and voting for the opposition.
My two cents!
The Author is a cadre of the NRM & a student of the NRM Internal Electoral Processes
