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| Demonstrators throw stones at security personnel during Walk to Work protests in 2011. Whereas Gen Muntu has projected himself as the methodical, patient and purposeful party builder, Dr Besigye has often presented himself as an avid activist, whose role is to inspire the people to stand up to President Museveni |
Before today, both Dr Kizza Besigye and Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu have not left any doubts as to where they would like to drive the struggle against President Museveni.
Gen Muntu believes that building a strong party with a huge grassroot reach will assure Ugandans that the party can win and manage power properly. Dr Besigye, on the other hand, says unless Ugandans discover the inherent power within them, they won’t be able to meaningfully participate in political processes.
Put differently, Gen Muntu has projected himself as the methodical, patient and purposeful party builder, while Dr Besigye is an avid activist, whose role is to inspire the people to stand up to President Museveni.
It is decision day and whereas the two candidates have squared off twice before, it appears that this is a contest unlike any other seen between the two.
Gauging the mood
It has not been business as usual as former minister and East African Community secretary general Amanya Mushega called out Dr Besigye on his earlier statement that he would never run against Mr Museveni again unless there were electoral reforms.
Mr Mushega, also a former bush war fighter, is one of those who decamped from NRM and joined FDC, but has preferred a laid-back approach to the new “resistance”, a tendency similar to Gen Muntu’s, which is probably one of the reasons why he backs the current party president.
Throughout the nearly two-month long campaign, Gen Muntu and Dr Besigye rarely clashed over who did a better job at mobilising the party’s base and a few other areas. But that was always as far as what was seen and heard in public.
Behind the scenes, Gen Muntu was committed to a hard-fought effort and was reaching out to the delegates, most of whom voted him to become party president less than three years ago.
Aware that he was tackling a man who had built some form of cult following within the party and beyond, Gen Muntu popularised a saying during this campaign, which he said he borrowed from a party leader for Agago District.
“A (strong) tree cannot replace a forest,” Gen Muntu has continually said in an attempt to underline the view that whereas Dr Besigye is a strong personality, he cannot replace the need for strong party institutions.
Here, Gen Muntu was referring to Dr Besigye’s cult following, which a senior party member says will enable Dr Besigye to prevail even this time.
“[Gen] Muntu has done a good job reaching out to the delegates,” the party member said, “but his problem is that Dr Besigye is very popular with the masses and the delegates are fearful of how the voters will react if they kick out Besigye.”
That fear could partly explain why going into today’s meeting few people want to be quoted to avoid being “misunderstood”.
Probably with this in mind, Dr Besigye not only met delegates during the campaigns, he also addressed very huge public rallies and cut the posture of the unassailable leader of the Opposition.
Third time lucky?
This is the posture Gen Muntu has dared to steadfastly and patiently tackle since 2009, when he first challenged the retired Colonel for the party presidency at a time when such an act was unthinkable. He was resoundingly beaten in that contest as the figures show (see related story on page 2).
When he challenged Dr Besigye for the party flag bearer position in 2010, his vote tally increased by about 100. Then, Gen Muntu again retreated to his mobilisation role, forming the advance party during his party president’s campaign.
This time round, Gen Muntu has pulled out all the stops as the current campaigns reached a climax and was at some point only blocked from inviting all the delegates from all over the country to when his opponent’s camp protested that this meeting would look like a mock delegates conference two days to today’s conference proper.
“Gen Muntu knows all the delegates by name,” a delegate told us, “And he has probably visited them all since 2005.”
For about two years after he became president, Gen Muntu was criticised for “going missing” as a party president, and in the process, failing to lead the party. Many times when influential institutions like Buganda Kingdom, the Catholic Church or the Muslim community had functions, for instance, Gen Muntu never attended, passing up the opportunity to link up with the general public.
Gen Muntu has finally come out of his shell and sought to boldly assert himself in a party which many say is still hugely under the influence of its founding leaders. He says the party would have already captured State power if its approach was a little different. And he has asked the delegates to this time choose to try his way of doing things. The leaders of the party will deliver the verdict later today.