NRM PRIMARIES DISHONESTY AND INADEQUATE

CAPACITY CAUSE TEMPORARY CHALLENGES BY

PARTY OFFICIALS AND CANDIDATES:
As I wrote in the other days paper, the careerist attitudes
that have flooded into the Party, caused problems for
leaders (mainly financial) and disoriented voters (expecting
meaningless bribes from the leaders). To remind the
reader, careerism means going into leadership as a job
(murimu, omurimo, aswam-atesot, tic-luo, azi-lugbara)
rather than going into leadership as a mission. We the
freedom fighters joined, initially, the struggle and
subsequently politics, not as a career, but, as a Mission
with specific aims. Aim one to oppose politics based on
sectarianism of religion and tribe. Aim two, to oppose the
marginalization of the women, the youth (waiting for the
age of 21 to vote instead of voting at the age of 18, for
instance) and the disabled. We characterize these two aims
as patriotism (uzalendo, mwoyo gwa Uganda). Aim three,
Pan-Africanism (the economic and political integration of
Africa), leading to the Political Federation of East Africa and
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the Common Market of Africa. This is to create a bigger

market for our farmers, manufacturers, etc. and guarantee
our strategic security vis a vis the potential imperialists
and hegomonists in the World. Aim four, socio-economic
transformation. Aim five, disciplined democracy. Aim six,
building a disciplined, patriotic Army with a Pan-Africanist
orientation. Without these, I cannot be in politics. In fact I
have been in the struggle for a long time because I believe
that all these six, including the Political Federation of East
Africa, will be realized. Otherwise, there would be no
reason to waste my time and energy with politics. I have
my job, career, as a farmer and it is very rewarding and
also satisfying.

Flooding into the Movement of careerist attitudes and the

poor work by the Secretariat over the years, created
dishonesty using any means to get into that job of
political leadership as a career. Dishonesty meant
bribing and cheating. On account of bribing and cheating,
many that were aggrieved opposed the use of the Electoral
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College to select flag bearers. Why? This was because the

delegates would be bribed into supporting the flagbearers that the electors of the delegates would not have
supported. The fewer, the easier to bribe. The demand,
therefore, became no delegation of power but direct
democracy like in the ancient Greek cities. This villagebased direct democracy, ancient Greece style, actually
worked well when we had just come from the bush because
supporters could line behind candidates. There would be
no argument. It would be self evident and uncontestable.

Along the way, however, the idea of secret ballot came on

board. The candidate should not know who voted for
him/her and who did not. This, therefore, meant a massive
General Elections being called a Party Primaries. This
means alot of work and alot of money organize a secret
ballots election in 60,000 villages for eight positions:
Constituency MP, Woman MP, District Chairperson, SubCounty Councillor to the district, Sub-County Chairman,
etc., etc. In this last Party Primaries, the Party spent a
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total of Ug. Shs. 30 billions. The National Electoral

Commission spends Ug. Shs. 560 billion on 28,010 polling
stations, not 60,000 like the NRM does.

This would still be manageable if there were two elements:

honesty by the Contestants and Party Election officials and
thorough preparations by the candidates themselves.
Honesty on the part of the contestants and the Party
election officials must be clear enough to the reader. I am
sure there is no need for elaboration. On the issue of the
candidates preparing enough, the crucial element is having
a reliable and alert polling agent at the village polling
station. When the opposition rigged the by-election in
Bushenyi, I brought a solution to the NRM. Let the
candidates select candidate agents they personally trust
two of them per polling station. One should observe how
the voting is going on. The other should record the names
of everybody that comes to vote that day: Museveni,
Mukasa, Mugisha, etc. At the end of the polling, at 1700
hours, you will have recorded that, for instance, 300 village
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voters voted on that day, name by name. These are

villagers that are known to everybody. Even the village
members that are staying away from the village that may
come back from the towns to vote in the villages are known.
Museveni of Rwakitura, who stays in Kampala, is known.
Soon after polling, the ballot boxes are opened in the
presence of everybody, votes are counted, results are
announced, recorded and every candidate agent signs. The
elections are finished. The rest is adding up famously
called tallying. If these candidate agents are honest the
two of them nothing will go wrong whatever the other
weaknesses dishonesty, inefficiency, etc., of the
candidates and election Party officials.

If the candidate

agents are chased by Police or hired hooligans, then the

results of that polling station should be canceled and
repeated. The Secretary-General, working with the
Electoral Commission of the NRM should ensure this. It
seems, however, many candidates did not also have reliable
agents at the village polling stations. Some could be bribed
by opponents, etc.
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It is this mixture of inadequate funding for such a massive

exercise; dishonesty caused by the careerism (jobism rather
than mission); and the inadequate preparation by the
candidates to ensure, through reliable polling agents who
record the voters by name and observe the counting and
declaration of results, that their votes are guarded; that is
responsible for the present post primaries arguments
among our contestants.

Given all his, my advice to the NRM Electoral Commission

has been as follows: listen to the illustrated complaints
carefully and, where the situation is clear, cancel the
results. Where it is not clear because of some missing
steps, then, counsel the stakeholders by pointing out, in
detail, where the gaps are. The Administrative Secretaries
of the Party at the district would have helped in this if
politicians had not pushed for their Political Assistants that
have no objectivity and, therefore, no value.

I hope that when our political leaders and cadres read this
short analysis, they will be able to see that there is need for
collective effort by all of us to remove the original causes of
this distraction from the long, mission oriented journey of
the NRM. The original causes are careerism which breeds
dishonesty and the inadequate preparations by all
concerned. When, for instance, we talk of reliable polling
agents by candidates, immediately the talk of money comes
in. How will these agents be paid? That is part of the
problem. If there are people who are concerned about their
area (district, constituency, sub-county, etc.), why should
they not volunteer for free for just two days in five years to
support the candidate they want to be Member of
Parliament for their area, or Chairman of a district or the
Chairman of a Sub-county or Councillor to the district?
How about me who endangered my life for a total of 13
years for free to fight for the freedom of the country? How
about my colleagues who did the same? Were we fools? In
the Book of Mathew Chap: 23:23; it says: They left undone

what they ought to have done and did that they ought not to
have done and there is no truth in them

This is a wrong spirit and logic. It must be expunged. As a

flag bearer of the NRM, I expect, at least, 4 Volunteers to
guard my votes against the cheating by whoever might
think of doing so. The most important are these two at the
polling station. One will be to record the names of people
who come to vote and the other one to observe the voting
process. Should these volunteers be paid or should they
give voluntary service as a contribution to our cause? They
could even bring their packed lunch. This may mean the
need for four observers so that when the two pull aside to
eat their lunch, the other two remain on duty. Is it really
too much to have some of our supporters give voluntary
service to our cause two times (a day each time) in five
years? NRM members reflect on this. Besides, the NRM
members should massively fundraise for the Party so that
the Party has adequate money for its activities. It is not
correct to make no financial contribution and you only
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complain when there are difficulties. The NRM account

number is 1100039293 (Shs. Account) and 1100069362
(Dollar Account) in the Housing Finance Bank.

As to the long-term solution to the malpractices that were

witnessed in the NRM Primaries, there are three possible
remedies. Remedy one is to keep the present system. It can
work with honesty and more alertness by the candidates
and their agents although it is very expensive for the Party.
Remedy two is to go back to the electoral colleges. This can
only work if honesty is upheld by everybody and bribing is
banished. The third remedy is to go back to lining behind
candidates. This would remove the secrecy but it would be
transparent. The fourth remedy is to go computerized with
finger-prints digitally read by a computerized digital reader
like the one we are acquiring for the National Electoral
Commission.

Therefore, NRM members and leaders, should know that

these problems are temporary and are solvable. Be strict
with honesty and alertness. These problems will disappear.

Otherwise, in future, we will have to rely on the honesty of

the computerised finger-print reader.

Yoweri K. Museveni Gen. (rtd)

CHAIRMAN NRM

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