KAMPALA . President Museveni as the current chairperson of Inter-party Organization for Dialogue (IPOD) is today set to meet leaders of Opposition political parties subscribing to the consortium.
However, the largest Opposition political party -National Unity Platform (NUP) insists they will not attend the meeting scheduled to take place at Kololo Ceremonial Grounds in Kampala City .
IPOD leadership says NUP leaders cannot attend today’s meeting because they failed to sign a memorandum of understanding with them as required by the current law . Speaking before Parliament last week , the Leader of Opposition Joel Ssenyonyi said they had not seen regulations contained in the MoU which IPOD wants them to be party to .
“ The Justice Ministry was meant to bring regulations to give effect to the recently amended law on Political Parties and Organizations Act in consultation with the stakeholders ,including NUP who are in IPOD by force . Parties represented in Parliament by virtue of that law are all conscripted into IPOD by force and that is the law. The consultations have not happened. We have not been invited and we hear a lot is happening,” told Parliament ,adding
“There is meant to be regulations and a memorandum of understanding that is meant to be done in consultation with all the stakeholders. The stakeholders are reached out to look at the regulations , memorandum of understanding and either sign or not sign .Could the MoU draft be given to stakeholders so that we can decide whether we want to be part of it or not .”
Although the deputy attorney general Mr Jackson Kafuuzi requested for more time to present the regulations in Parliament , the Speaker Anita Among , in her response asked Mr Ssenyonyi to visit the IPOD headquarters and present his concerns . Today’s meeting /summit is held under the theme “ Together for a peaceful and sustainable Uganda” .
It is expected to be attended by party leaders from Democratic Party(DP) , Forum for Democratic Change(FDC) , Justice Forum (JEEMA) ,National Resistance Movement(NRM) , Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) ,Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) .
IPOD was formed in 2005 and legally incorporated in 2021 to promote inclusive democratic principles, goof governance, human rights and institutional strengthening of political parties . It was created by the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy .
Parliament in May 2025 passed a private member’s Bill that bars political parties that do have MoU with IPOD to access government funding which ranges in billions of shillings annually depending on party’s numerical strength in Parliament . It remains to be seen whether the current impasse between NUP and IPOD leadership will be soon resolved and the party readmitted into the group .