Central Executive Committee (CEC) has endorsed President Yoweri Museveni
as the party’s sole candidate for the 2021 elections.
The resolution was reached on Tuesday afternoon during the five day
retreat of CEC at Chobe Safari Lodge in Nwoya district. This means that
Museveni who has been Uganda president since 1986 after shooting his way
to power, will now contest for a sixth term in office. He will be 76
years old in 2021. He controversially won the last election with 60.75%
of the votes with his closest rival Kizza Besigye getting 35%.
NRM senior information manager Rogers Mulindwa said in a statement that
CEC has once again endorsed Museveni to run as the party’s sole
candidate.
In the 2016 presidential elections, the party endorsed Museveni as
the sole presidential candidate after Amama Mbabazi, the then party
secretary general expressed interest in contesting against Museveni.
Mbabazi was subsequently forced out the party.
“To emphatically recommend to the membership of the movement and its
organs that His Excellency Yoweri Museveni our leader and General of the
African Resistance, continues leading the Movement and the State in
2021 and beyond- as we eliminate the bottlenecks to transformation,”
reads part of the statement.
Mulindwa notes that the party’s top organ also made several
directives to government for urgent changes among, which are to
expeditiously study the multiple requirements of operationalizing the
parish model and proceed with implementation without delay. The model is
envisaged to help transform 68 per cent households that are still
involved in substance farming.
“The party directs the government to significantly recapitalize the
Uganda Development Bank (UDB) in the new financial year, to enable the
bank to play a more vigorous and central role in providing affordable
credit for transformative effort,” further reads the statement.
Mulindwa says that the re-capitalization of UDB shall include
relocating the Agricultural Credit Facility from Bank of Uganda to UDB.
CEC also directed government to urgently revisit the legal and
administrative regime for environmental conservation, as part of a
fundamental push to roll back and mitigate the effects of climate
change.
It also wants government to urgently revisit the reform of the land
legal regime that they say creates unacceptable obstacles to national
development. Meanwhile, CEC wants NRM to expeditiously ensure the
instruction in patriotism straight from primary to universities and
other tertiary institutions.
It also seeks to invest massively in the development, consolidation
and dissemination of its ideological line as well as the systematic
mentorship of its cadre-ship.
“NRM cadres should appreciate & internalize the need for
appropriate strategy & tactics at every phase of the struggle for
the fundamental socio-economic transformation of Uganda and Africa,”
reads the statement.
CEC also tasks its members to sensitise and mobilise Ugandans to work
together for the political and economic integration of East Africa as
well as the consolidation of an African common market.
