Arach Oyat Sharon - UPC spokesperson. Courtesy/File photo.
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It’s not yet clear if, in 2026 UPC will have a presidential candidate.
By Milton Emmy Akwam
Kampala – March 2022: Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) party on March 9 turned 62 years old following the 1960 merger.
Seventeen years after the death of her founding father and two-time President of Uganda Dr Apollo Milton Obote (RIP), the “Ayuu-ayuu party” is yet to show any interest in the country’s top office – Presidency.
Sources close to James Akena, the current party president said Akena, also the Lira City East MP, is still interested in building grassroots support.
In 2020 and years before, on several occasions, Akena made his intentions clear – to first strengthen the party and defend it from his “opposition”.
It’s not yet clear if, in 2026 UPC will have a presidential candidate: the first time in nearly two decades of the Akena’s party presidency.
At the lower elections, UPC participates. On Wednesday, March 9, 2022, the party’s spokesperson Oyat Arach Sharon addressed the media in Kampala.
“Following the release of the general roadmap for the elections of women councils and committees by the Independent Electoral Commission, which is due to take place between June and August 2022, UPC is preparing to participate in these elections right from the village to the national level,” she said.
According to Oyat, the UPC’s strength is rooted in among other Special Interest Groups (SIGs) women and that is why the party constitution is so sensitive on the issues of gender!
“It provides for the positions of; Woman Leader, Youth Leader and Leader of Persons With Disability (PWDs) at every branch structure as well as empowering women to stand for any elective positions in internal party elections. The party, therefore, recognises the role of women in the development of both the party and the entire country.”
“The current Executive Committee of the National Women’s Council was constituted in August 2018, and according to the National Women’s Act, the term of office of the said councils and committees is 4 (four) years, meaning that it will elapse in August 2022.”
“According to Electoral Commission, the elections of women councils and committees will start with the update of the activities of the administrative unit from 17th – 26th March 2022,” she said, in a statement.
“With that backdrop in mind, UPC urges all the party women across the country to participate in those activities in readiness for elections.”
The office of the Secretary-General and that of the national women leader, according to Oyat are working out modalities of how best the party can successfully participate in the forthcoming elections of women councils and committees from the village to the national level.
In the meantime, she said the Regional Vice-Chairpersons (RVCs), District Leaders, Branch Leaders and all Women Leaders countrywide are encouraged to work hand-in-hand and start identifying the potential women among the general membership who will represent the party in the elections of women councils and committees and update or furnish the national party secretariat with the information in time for better preparations.
