STATEMENT ON PROPAGANDA ABOUT IPOD FUNDING

The National Unity Platform would like to reiterate once again that it is not part of the IPOD arrangement and has never received any funding or support from that platform. The Party is funded by its elected Members of Parliament, donations and disbursements allocated by Parliament to all Political Parties with representation in Parliament.

For clarity, Section 14A of the Political Parties and Organisations Act (As amended) provides that “Government shall contribute funds or other public resources towards the activities of political parties or organisations represented in Parliament.” Sub section (c) states that, “In respect of normal day to day activities, funding shall be based on the numerical strength of each political party or organization in Parliament.” These are funds allocated by Parliament, disbursed from the consolidated fund and duly accounted for. It is not Museveni’s money!

The regime and its tools have always tried to cluster this funding as the ‘IPOD money’ which they know is false. IPOD is a loose arrangement, with no basis in the laws of Uganda. Like we said recently, it has been hijacked by Museveni to enforce his despotic will. We deliberately decided to forego all the opportunities and resources it extends to its members, for the sake of our principles and the values we represent!

No wonder, last week, Gen. Museveni met with the Secretaries General of different parties and plotted how to stop NUP from getting this funding, the way he has frustrated us in all other ways. Gen. Museveni stated that the law should be amended so that only political parties which are in IPOD should be entitled to public funds. In other words, only those parties which accepted to talk and hobnob with him!

Our reasons for not joining IPOD were clearly spelled out and need no repetition. The increasing incidents of torture, abductions, illegal detentions and other forms of repression assure us that our decision not to join IPOD was well thought-out. If Gen. Museveni goes ahead to manipulate the law so as to restrict public funding to only political parties in IPOD, we shall challenge it, but let it be known that even if all funding is taken away, we SHALL NOT BOW TO THE DICTATES OF THE MILITARY REGIME.

KYAGULANYI SSENTAMU ROBERT PRESIDENT