Nowadays, the agendas of political parties are changing. This changing political atmosphere has left many political parties struggling to form their special political bases, with some almost not present or in their existence.
After the independence of Uganda, what is the crucial thing that informed a political party about their social-political base or where they call home ranged from religion, ethnicity, class, and values, among other factors?
This kind of change in the game is also called a difference in their players, but who commands the central region in the current and latest political space?
Political parties who are based in Uganda can be traced back to some of the former parties like the Democratic Party (DP) and Uganda People’s Congress (UPC), where DP belonged to the central region backed by the Catholics, and UPC belonged to the north and parts west of Uganda with a backing of the Anglican Church.
The National resistance (NRM) dislodged the two kings, and later FDC claimed almost all four regions of Uganda except Northern Uganda, was battling with the war.
However, FDC later claimed that northern Uganda tapped into people’s discontent with administration failure in order to end the LRA war.
Moreover, FDC is enjoying the support of the majority from the north, with NRM enjoying support from the rest of the country. They came in the power of the morphed into the National Unity Platform (NUP).
NUP, like the last elections, showed, dominated the central region.
However, some parties become stronger, and the rest of the parties are fading away and nearer to becoming briefcase parties.
The director of information and publicity of NRM’ Emmanuel Dombo’ confessed that their political base in the centre had been infringed on by the opposition, who have sold in lies to their supporters.
Dombo stated that they came here with lies, and the dumbest part is people believed them.
According to the Coordinator for the Buganda region of NUP and Leader of opposition ‘Mathias Mpuuga’, there is no doubt that they command the central region.
Furthermore, Mpuuga stated, “I can say without any doubt or fear that we are deep red in central and east.”
But DP president general Norbert Mao disputed this, saying the party he leads is still central.
He said NUP is just a wave that will fade.
He further said, “FDC used to have good support in central, but can you call central their base now? No, they faded; NUP will fade as well.”
According to Mao, most political parties are nearer to losing their political bases because they have created party gods.
Furthermore, he added that if you see these parties are making mistakes, creating personalities more than parties if one day these personalities do not wake up, that will be the end.”
But those watching from outside, like Political analyst Mwambustya Ndebesa, said that social-political bases are currently formed around social factors.
“In the current situation where Uganda is, there is a trend to look for social-political basis in ethnic groups and nationality,” he said.
Ndebesa stated that this has been a make and kill of parties, leaving some of the once strongest parties lost.
Moreover, the support of FDC was towards the north because of the challenges that NRM had during the war, but now the north has moved to NRM, leaving FDC hanging. Fdc needs to find a new political base. They have to find a new resentment,” Ndebesa said.
This leaves the 20 plus registered parties like JEEMA, UPC, PPP and others in the political sphere subject to another debate.
