The Democratic Party (DP) in Uganda is facing a deepening crisis after the arrest of four youth leaders from the Uganda Young Democrats (UYD), who were demanding action on a long-pending petition questioning the legality of the party’s leadership.
On Tuesday morning, the youth leaders, including Michael Mpunge (UYD President), Anthony Waddimba (Kayunga), Ismail Kirya (Jinja), and Julius Ddumba (Kampala), were detained at the Electoral Commission (EC) headquarters in Kampala. The group had gone to the EC seeking feedback on a petition filed months earlier by concerned DP members, including Hon. Johnson Muyanja Lumu, accusing the leadership of fraudulent practices and failure to hold internal elections since 2020.
The activists, who peacefully gathered outside the EC, were quickly arrested by police without a clear explanation. Despite being reportedly taken to Kabalagala Police Station, their whereabouts were not confirmed for several hours. UYD later issued a statement demanding the immediate release of the leaders and called for the Electoral Commission to take action regarding the internal irregularities within the party.
The youth group, known for its grassroots activism within the DP, criticized the Electoral Commission’s inaction, accusing it of failing to address serious concerns about Norbert Mao’s leadership, which has been called illegitimate by several members due to his failure to hold elections and his overstayed term.
In a statement, UYD expressed their frustration, saying:
“We have a constitutional right to seek answers from the Electoral Commission, yet we are being arrested for demanding accountability and democratic governance in our own party.”
The arrests are just the latest development in a worsening crisis within the DP, which has been rocked by months of infighting. The turmoil stemmed from Mao’s controversial cooperation agreement with the National Resistance Movement (NRM), which many members saw as a betrayal of the party’s opposition roots. This agreement, along with the controversial National Delegates Conference (NDC) in Mbarara, has fueled tensions and accusations of illegitimate party leadership.
UYD is now calling on DP members and democratic actors to rally in support of the arrested leaders and pressure the Electoral Commission to take decisive action in order to preserve democratic governance within political parties in Uganda.
The Electoral Commission has not yet commented on either the arrests or the petition against Mao’s leadership.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pbDPt7daLQ