FDC Katonga faction charts own course for new party

The leaders of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) Katonga faction yesterday initiated the registration process for their new party, the People's Front for Freedom (PFF).
The acting president, Mr Erias Lukwago, flagged off the collection of signatures from voters across the country.
He explained that to complete the registration process, the group’s leaders must collect at least 50 signatures from each district, covering a third of the districts across the country.
“By the powers entrusted to me as the president of the FDC, I flag off the registration exercise. We have set up a number of registration centres for our supporters and well-wishers to append their signatures,” Mr Lukwago said.
He added:“We expect signatories to possess a NIN (National Identification Number) from their national identity cards and the voter number from their voter registration slip. We have assigned Ingrid Turinawe to check for the voter number of all those Ugandans who lost their slips. She has the voter register and should be able to help everyone.” 
The acting publicity secretary, Mr Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, said they have started collecting signatures from voters in Kampala and Wakiso districts and will thereafter embark on other districts.
He said officials would conduct consultative meetings in all districts across the country and also collect signatures during those meetings.
“We are going to leave some forms at the headquarters and at district offices where we have them to accommodate everybody who wishes to register,” Mr Ssemujju said.
This development comes after the Electoral Commission gave the faction the green light to register the party, providing them with the necessary registration forms and guidelines.
An October 2 letter from the Secretary of the Electoral Commission, Mr Leonard Mulekwa, indicates that the leadership of the FDC Katonga faction is expected to submit two copies of the party's constitution, duly signed by authorised officers.
They are also supposed to submit the full names and addresses of at least 50 members from at least two-thirds of the districts in each of Uganda's traditional geographical regions, listed in the second schedule of Political Parties and Organisations Act, amended in 2020 , being either ordinary residents or registered voters in the district.
Additionally, they must provide a full description of the identity slogans, symbols, and colours of the party and pay the requisite registration fee of Shs250, 000.
“Please use the prescribed form 1 in the third schedule of the Act for submitting the application to register your political party or organisation. A sample form and introductory letter for collecting the list of members under section 7(1) of the Political Parties and Organisations Act are also attached,” Mr Mulekwa noted in part.
Mr Lukwago said they plan to complete the exercise of collecting signatures and submitting the completed forms to the Electoral Commission before the end of this year.
“We are going to start drafting our constitution this week because it is one of the requirements for registering a new party. After we finish collecting signatures, we will submit the completed forms and our constitution to the Electoral Commission for verification and approval,” he revealed.
Mr Lukwago cautioned the police to refrain from interfering with their signature collection exercise.
“Today [Yesterday], our exercise has started, and we do not expect any disruption from the police, RDC, or any other security agency. This exercise is legitimate and lawful because it has been sanctioned by the Electoral Commission. We have a clearance letter from the EC, and the police should not cause any commotion,” he said.
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The FDC Katonga faction's plan to register a new party began in August after its leaders wrote to the EC seeking clearance to reserve the party name PFF and access forms to officially register it.
However, on September 4, the EC declined to reserve the FDC Katonga faction’s party name, citing its similarity to another political group, the People Power Front, and that its colours of white and royal blue resemble those of the FDC Najjanankumbi, which would confuse members of the public.
In a September 16 letter, seen by Monitor, the Katonga faction responded to the said claims and maintained that their name and colours are distinct.
The faction argued that there was no similarity between the names People Power Front and People’s Front for Freedom because the law only prohibits the registration of names similar to those of already registered parties, not those in the process of registration.
“In this case, there is no political party with the registered name People Power Front as per the gazetted list of registered political parties. We wish to emphasise that name reservation has a timeframe, which the EC has not explained. Besides, the two entities have different acronyms, PPF and PFF,” part of the letter stated.
The faction also contended that the allegation of colour similarity with the FDC is false because their colour is royal blue, while FDC's is sky blue, which are distinct, given the numerous shades of blue.
Based on this, they asked the EC to rethink its decision and issue them the registration forms so they can start the process, which the EC did.