By Spy Uganda
Kyadondo East legislator Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine’s presidential ambitions are likely to stall after people who claim to be the founders of the National Unity, Reconciliation and Development Party (NURP) have accused him of allegedly hijacking their party and illegally changing its name to the National Unity Platform (NUP).
Through their lawyer James Byamukama, the purported founders of NURP have written to the Electoral Commission, complaining about Bobi Wine’s supposedly illegal actions of taking over their political party and renaming without their consent.
They therefore want the E.C to exercise their powers and deregister Bobi Wine’s NUP party from participating in the 2021 general election, plus ban him from using the party’s symbols and colours.
Their complaint to the E.C dates August 3rd, 2020, reads in part thus;
The Chairperson Electoral Commission Jinja Road. KAMPALA
RE: COMPLAINT AGAINST THE ILLEGAL AMENDMENT OF THE NURP POLITICAL PARTY CONSTITUTION TO CHANGE THE PARTY NAME, SYMBOLS AND COLOURS, AND TO CHANGE THE TOP LEADERSHIP OF THE PARTY AND TO NOMINATE HON. KYAGULANYI SSENTAMU ROBERT AS THE PARTY’S PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE IN THE 2021 GENERAL ELECTION
Under Section 4 and 21 of the Political Parties 8 Organizations Act 2005, we are instructed by the founders of the National Unity, Reconciliation and Development Party (NURP), which was registered as a political party in 2004, to lodge a complaint against the following unlawful resolutions/decisions/transactions entered into on behalf of the said Party, which violate the Party Constitution and national laws
The resolution amending the Party name from National Unity, Reconciliation and Development Party (NURP) as per its certificate of registration issued on 28/12/2004 to “The National Unity Platform” (NUP) published under General Notice No. 838 of 2019 in the Uganda Gazette dated 12/8/2019 and certificate of registration issued on 28/8/2019, without complying with the Party Constitution 2004 and provisions of the Political Parties and Organizations Act 2005.
The resolution dated 5/12/2017 illegally nominating someone described in the resolution as the “Gheto President, H. E. Bobi Wine Kyadondo East MP Hon. Kyagulanyi Robert” as the Party’s Presidential flag bearer in the 2021 Presidential elections, many years before the due time for such nominations and without following the Party Constitution and national election laws
- The extra ordinary Delegates Conference allegedly held on 14/7/2020 and attended by only 51 unverified members out of a Delegates Membership lot of 400 delegates, which rubber stamped Hon Kyagulanyi Ssentamu Robert as the new Party President and his associates as Party office bearers unopposed without conducting a proper election in violation of the Party Constitution and provisions in the national Constitution on internal democracy of political parties.
- The deliberate alteration of the list of founder members/subscribers of the Party in order to aid and abet the aforesaid schemes
2 Under Section 21 of the Political Parties and Organizations Act 2005, the Electoral Commission is under a statutory duty to address and rectify the aforesaid illegalities, hence this complaint
If you fail or omit to exercise your statutory mandate in the matter, our clients who are the Party founders will have no option but to join the Electoral Commission to legal proceedings intended to restore control of the NURP Party to its rightful founders and members.
We are also requesting access to the full records on this matter in order to advise our clients, who are the Party founders…”
However, in reply the above complaint, Bobi Wine wrote thus on social media;
“The DICTATORSHIP IN TOTAL PANIC!
When we tried to reserve the name ‘People Power’ in 2019, we found that the regime had deployed its apologists to reserve the name so as to block us from registering a Political Party.
Then, we set out to do consultations as guaranteed by the laws of this land. Under the very eye of the Electoral Commission, our consultations were blocked and frustrated.
A few days back, we dropped a bomb shell that threw them into a state of panic. We had been doing all processes legally but quietly for some months. The day we filed papers at the Electoral Commission informing them of the new leadership of the National Unity Platform, President Museveni immediately sacked key people at the Electoral Commission, including Mr. Sam Rwakoojo, the Secretary and Mr. Jothan Taremwa, the spokesman. Their crime? How did all this happen under their watch?
From the day we unveiled the Party, the regime has been thrown into a pandemonium seeing millions of Ugandans who have embraced the idea. They first tried to downplay us, but that did not work. The thousands of people, including leaders who have been flocking our offices to register have scared the hell out of them.
So they took the war to our colours. Yesterday, the UPC Party stated that the war on colour red is not instigated by them, but by the Electoral Commission. They clearly saw that they were losing that war too.
And now, there is a new attempt by one James Byamukama, whose mission can be clearly understood! The regime is trying to clutch onto anything that will save it from the inevitable collapse and embarrassment that awaits it.
This is a Party which has existed for all these years and nobody has ever raised any complaint. The changes which have been made in the recent months have all been done in full compliance with all provisions of the Party Constitution and other laws. They have been approved and gazetted by the Commission itself. And now, because Kyagulanyi is Party President and they are seeing how much support we are receiving across the nation, they will use all sorts of people to file bogus cases and do all manner of things. We have information that they are even doctoring some documents on the file! Meetings are sitting every day, to find any avenue through which they can stop us or cut down our momentum. The good thing is that we expected all this, and we expect even more. Dictators are shameless, by their very nature.
My assurance to you comrades- no machinations of any kind have ever saved these dictators. The winds of change can never be stopped by petty laws enacted by petty despots, or even petty schemes instigated by scared dictators. We THE PEOPLE, shall emerge victorious. This new attempt will fail, like all other attempts before them.
#NationalUnityPlatform
#PeoplePower_OurPower”
