Democratic Party regional offices in Masaka have been closed down amid rising tensions between two party factions.
The factions support DP president Norbert Mao and former independent presidential candidate, Sam Lubega respectively.
The closed offices are located on Hobert Street next to Soweto Catholic church in Masaka town. Mao opened the offices in January 2011, in the run up to the 2011 general elections.
Last week, a group of former Masaka district Democratic Party executive members issued an eviction order for Denis Mukasa Mbidde, the Masaka district DP Chairman and his group to vacate the offices immediately on grounds that they are illegally occupying the premises.
The DP members led by Ben Bukenya, the former Masaka district DP chairperson claim that the recent Court of Appeal ruling, which nullified the appointment of Mathias Nsubuga as party secretary general, mandates them to be the legitimate DP leaders.
Bukenya says they want to take over the regional offices to run party affairs. He says if Mbidde and his group don’t leave immediately, they will forcefully evict them.
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Joseph Kasirye, the faction Secretary General says the continued occupation of the offices by Mao’s group which was pronounced illegitimate is hurting the party support. Kasirye attributes the recent defection of DP leaders to NRM to poor leadership of Mao, who has failed to reconcile them.
Kasirye, who is backed by about 50 youths, claims that Mao’s continued stay in the office is disaster to DP progress.
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Kasirye says they want Mao and his group to stop performing any party activities because they are doing it illegally.
Mbidde, the Masaka DP chairperson, who is also the party legal adviser, could not be reached for a comment.
But Denis Lukanga Majwala, the party spokesperson for Masaka says that the plans by Ben Bukenya group to take over office are illegal and will not be accepted.
Lukanga argues that the court ruling only affected Mao’s group but not the district party leaders. He warns that if they dare use force to take over offices, they will deal with them accordingly.
Lukanga also explains that Bukenya cannot assume the leadership of DP in Masaka because his leadership was democratically voted out in 2006.
