Edward Rurangaranga, national chairperson of the Uganda People’s Congress, says Ugandans should tighten their belts because the next five years of leadership by the National Resistance Movement will be the worst in the country’s history.
Rurangaranga, addressing a news conference at his home in Sheema District on Thursday, predicted very poor performance of the NRM leaders. He said Ugandan’s made a mistake by re-electing President Yoweri Museveni and pro-NRM leaders when there was evidence that the NRM had failed to properly govern the country.
The UPC strongman warned of ever increasing food prices and the further embezzlement of public finances by state authorities. He accused Museveni and the NRM of robbing state coffers to fund their election campaign and said the impact of this fraud would evident as days go by.
Rurangaranga said the NRM blatantly bribed people to vote for it using public funds, which has caused several important government projects to stall. He said anyone who dared to question this practice was intimidated and silenced.
Edward Rurangaranga, a former cabinet minister and close confident of former president Milton Obote, said the UPC warned that the elections would not be free and fair because of the bias of the Electoral Commission. He lamented the fact that many people did not listen to this warning.
Before nominations for the 2011 elections, the UPC president Olara Otunnu announced that his party would boycott the vote because of the impartiality of the Electoral Commission. Rurangaranga said it reconsidered this opinion, but he didn’t explain why.
Olara Otunnu was nominated to stand in the elections and he, like the other presidential candidates, spent millions of shillings in the campaigns. However on election day, he abstained as a final act of defiance.
Rurangaranga said the UPC is now considering a strategy in which it can best contribute to the development of Uganda in coming years.
###
