Opposition outraged by Attorney General’s stance on parties

Uganda’s opposition parties have expressed outrage over comments made by the government’s Attorney General Francis Ayume, in which he accused them of being unlawful. Ayume caused an uproar at a press conference on Monday when he said that none of the would-be political parties operating in Uganda were recognised by the law because they had failed to register under the Political Parties and Organisations Act (POA). He said that if they tried to gather or hold rallies, “they risk being dispersed by police as this will be categorised as unlawful assembly”. Political parties were banned in Uganda when President Yoweri Museveni’s National Resistance Movement (NRM) took power in 1986. Presidential and parliamentary elections were quickly restored, but forming parties was forbidden on the grounds that they were too often split along ethnic lines, leading to conflict and instability. Since then, Museveni has gradually given in to pressure from donors and the international community to restore multiparty politics, introducing the POA last year. But the act says parties must register to be lawful and some of the conditions have been rejected by opposition parties. “For a party to operate it must register,” Ayume told IRIN. “That is a constitutional requirement. If they are reluctant to meet that requirement, then there’s nothing we can do to help them.” But the parties point out that some sections of the act were rejected by Uganda’s Constitutional Court. "We cannot register under a law that has been explicitly dismissed by the judges of the courts,” said Jude Mbabaali, spokesperson for the opposition Democratic Party. "The government must draft another law under which we can register.” The controversial section 6, which the court rejected on 20 March, has a clause which forbids parties to operate outside Kampala. Ayume said he was unhappy with this court ruling and is in the process of challenging it. But Mbabaali said none of Uganda’s parties would accept being confined within the capital. “The clause states that parties cannot have rallies outside Kampala and their headquarters must be based in Kampala,” he said. “But what if you wanted to start a Karamoja People’s Party? Clearly this is an infringement of the right to associate.” "The government is under a lot of pressure to open up political space," he added. "This doesn’t look like a sincere effort."