Mbabazi: Uganda Paying Price of Multiparty Politics Michael Ntezza Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi receives the American delegation at his office on Friday (Photo by PMPU) Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi has met the President of the International Republican Institute (IRI), Ambassador Mark Green, who led an American delegation to discuss with him a wide range of issues. The talks centred on IRI activities, and partnership in the promotion of democracy and good governance. Others included the need for political competition between empowered political parties, women and youth. IRI is a nonpartisan organization founded in 1984 and is part of the US National Endowment for Democracy that seeks to assist nations in organizing free and fair elections. Founded in 1983, the organisation conducts international democratisation programmes with a special emphasis on promoting women’s involvement in politics. It is co-funded by the US and Canadian governments. Mbabazi told his guests that multiparty politics was yet to take root in Uganda, briefing him about the principles of individual merit which the NRM government championed in the interest of unity in 1986. “For 20 years we had politics of no-party individual merit but are now paying a heavy price,” Mbabazi, who is also the Secretary General of the ruling NRM party, said. He explained that some people still had difficulty adhering to agreed party positions in the public domain. Mbabazi also hailed the good relations between Uganda and the US, inviting his guests onto countrywide tour and track mountain gorillas. He also briefed them about Uganda’s revolution and economic growth which had averaged 6% for many years. An accomplished diplomat and former political leader-turned civil society expert, Green served as a senior director at the US Global Leadership Coalition, a network of 400 businesses, NGOs, policy experts and other leaders supporting development tools in American foreign policy. He told said he had been to at least 20 countries in Africa but found Ugandans to always be optimistic about the future, hailing the country’s role in stabilizing the Great Lakes region. “We work in places where democracy is widespread and we see Uganda as a blessed country,” he noted. He commended the Uganda Government for what he called “dealing with security in complicated places”. IRI’s mission is to expand freedom throughout the world, with its activities including teaching and assisting political party and candidate development in their values, good governance practices, civil society development, civic education, women’s and youth leadership development, electoral reform and election monitoring, and political expression.
Posted on: Sat, 23 Aug 2014 16:18:39 +0000
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