Museveni Launches NRM Mass Registration
By Our reporter
KYADONDO – President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni who is also the National Chairman of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) has today launched the update of the party register.
The launch of the display, update and registration of all party members in
all villages countrywide took place at the party headquarters at Plot 10 –
Kyadondo Road, Nakasero – Kampala.
Addressing the party members, President Museveni urged the party
cadres to clearly understand the four core principles of the NRM;
Patriotism, Pan Africanism, socio-economic transformation and
democracy, so that they are able to solve the problems of Ugandans.
“Mobilisation, holding meetings and all those other efforts will be very
easy if you go back to the NRM principles. The principles of the NRM
are a diagnosis of the problems of Uganda. Those principles are at first
a diagnosis; what is this Uganda suffering from? And then a prescription.
Therefore, as you mobilise, first of all understand these principles very
clearly yourself. That is why you, the leaders, must be different from the
followers. A follower doesn’t have to understand the depth of the matter,
he needs a summary,” President Museveni stressed.
The President further tasked the cadres to intensify mobilisation and
sensitization of Ugandans in order to cause the much-desired socio-
economic transformation in the country.
“Although we are now going to launch this exercise, the work of
mobilisation and sensitising our people must be the leading effort of you
the cadres. Tomorrow on TV, I will speak more about socio-economic
transformation because this is the real issue. If all Ugandans knew how
to live well, in the strategy of private sector led-growth, then NRM will
have no work to do. This is our struggle as leaders to teach every adult,
even the young Ugandans, how to create wealth,” he noted.
“Even the politics of identity based on tribe or religion is pushed by
people who don't know anything about wealth creation because as a
wealth creator, I don't think about tribes.”
President Museveni on the other hand, rallied the leaders to mobilise
Ugandans to create wealth through the four sectors of the economy
which include; commercial agriculture with “ekibaro”, manufacturing and
artisanship, services and ICT.
“We need to emphasise that the NRM is a party which came with a
principle of understanding people's needs which have got a potential
solution, but it has not been either identified or if identified not
implemented.”
The President also urged the party cadres to carry out a democratic
exercise and warned them against the opposition's planned move to
disorganise the party primaries.
“For the last-minute people, it is not wise to register them, what is wise is
to allow only those whom you the villagers can confirm that have been
having a positive attitude for some time,” he cautioned.
“I hear there are plans by the opposition to invade and then distort our
primaries. Be careful, we are not in a rush and anybody who commits
election fraud is liable to 7 years in jail because you may think this is a
party matter, not government matter, the law covers everybody.”
During the same event, President Museveni registered and updated his
particulars in the register as a member of the party.
The NRM 1st National Vice Chairman, Alhajj Moses Kigongo appealed
to the party members to show the highest degree of discipline during the
exercise.
“The people down there are very eager to see what you are going to do
but if you don't have discipline, you are going to mess up things.
Secondly, you are going to be approached by some people who want to
stand in those areas, they can come with a list of people, and they will
try to bribe you so that you include them in our register. By doing so you
are going to spoil everything, and we don't want to go back to zero.
Therefore, be transparent and calm.”
The NRM Secretary General, Rt. Hon. Richard Todwong, on behalf of
the NRM party, thanked President Museveni for being a pillar and an
icon to the African revolution and to the world.
“As a party we are committed to make sure that you continue with your
legacy and good deeds and we pledge before everybody that the party
is still asking for your goodwill to offer yourself in 2026. I have received
quite a number of petitions from the districts. I told them that at the right
time I will process them and present them to the Central Executive
Committee (CEC) of the party,” he said.
Rt. Hon. Todwong also thanked the government for implementing the
NRM Manifesto.
“This makes mobilisation very easy and for us as a party, we are
concentrating on issues of ensuring how households are raised out of
poverty. It is our roles and mandate within the structures of the party that
we keep reminding our population to benefit from these programs and
fight poverty.”
He further noted that the party currently has a total of 11.4 million voters
in their register but many of them don't have National Identification
numbers, others have been registered in many villages, so the exercise
is to make sure that they clean and reorganise the register.
“Out of the 11.4 million, we have 5.8 million who are male and 5.3 million
female and this represents the 151 districts, 345 constituencies, 2216
sub counties, 10747 parishes and 71512 villages and the number of
villages keep increasing because the National Electoral Commission has
a different number, and the local government also has a different
number. In total we are operating within 72000 villages in the country,”
he said.
The Chairman of the NRM Electoral Commission, Dr. Tanga Odoi
presented to the President a revised copy of the roadmap for the
election of the NRM structures from the village to the national level.
“On Wednesday 13th to Sunday 17th March 2024, the exercise of
display and update of the NRM register will be done at every village of
Uganda. On Sunday 17th March 2024, in the evening after 5pm, all
villages will have what we call village baraza. The NRM Village
Executive Committee, the NRM Electoral Commission Village Registrar
will be called to approve before we call it a register,” he said.
“Members will have the opportunity to actually verify whether those
captured belong to their villages. The village baraza will be on Sunday
17th March 2024.The importance of that date is that the Chairpersons
who are seated here, the NRM Electoral Commission officials and the
administrators will make sure, they monitor the whole country with the
members of the Secretariat to ensure that this register is only closed
after the names have been read to them.”
On 24th March 2024, Dr. Tanga added that the party will call for
expression of interest and nominate candidates for party structures at
village or cell level.
“Your Excellency, the importance of this is that you cannot join the
system at the parish level if you want to compete, you must start at the
village level. We must nominate you; we have you on record so that
when you move progressively up to the district, we have your record
from the village. You do not enter at the end; you must start from the
village.”
In a separate meeting, President Museveni also addressed the NRM
party registrars who have been undergoing training for the exercise. The
meeting took place at Plot 13, Kyadondo Road.
The function was also attended by the Vice President, H.E Jessica
Alupo, the First Deputy Prime Minister and 2nd National Vice
chairperson of NRM, Rt. Hon. Rebecca Kadaga, other Central Executive
Committee (CEC) members, NRM district chairpersons, registrars,
district administrators, regional coordinators of the Office of the NRM
National Chairman, among others.
