Kampala, (UG): President Yoweri Museveni who also doubles as the Chairman of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) today launched the update of the party voter’s exercise and vowed that NRM will yet again comb the upcoming elections right from the village grassroots to the Presidential level.
The President speaking to top NRM leaders at the Party Secretariat in Kampala, said the exercise, a crucial activity for the party’s electoral roadmap for the 2026 elections, also serves as a reminder for the NRM leaders to emphasize the four NRM ideologies with the members to ensure that the party continues to attract more members during the exercise.
“Mobilization in the form of holding meetings and rallies is good but all those efforts will be very easy if you go back to the NRM principles and understand them. These principles are a diagnosis of the problems of Uganda and then a prescription. Therefore, as you mobilise, understand these principles yourself,” Mr Museveni said.
“Mobilisation of meetings is rending our clothes but we must rend our hearts,” the President added insisting that NRM leaders understand what the country needs by going deep to understand the problems so they can ably mobilise and sensitize the public
The four NRM principles highlighted by the President include; Patriotism, Pan Africanism, Social Economic Transformation and Democracy.
“Each one of these (the principles) has got deeper values attached to the NRM, so explore them and make our members understand wholly” Mr Museveni added.
The President also renewed his party credentials as an NRM Member before the Secretary-General Rt. Hon Richard Todwong, and thereafter signed the dummy register book to mark the launch of the exercise.
The NRM SG, Rt Hon Richard Todwong revealed that the party’s Membership registry currently boasts of 11.4 million registered members with the party aiming to expand the figure further in the upcoming registration exercises.
Todwong said the process of preparing the registry which included data analysis and cleanup is now done, and administrative units harmonized, booklets printed and sorted for display at the village and parish levels for the exercise to get underway.
Unlike the previous manual exercise of updating the registers, Mr Todwong excitedly told leaders that the NRM has this time around opted to go digital with now over 70,000 villages mapped onto the party registry countrywide, which enables the district and parish registrars to easily update the information that automatically reflects to the national level.
The SG also urged the NRM leaders right from village to national level to emulate President Museveni’s visionary leadership and ensure discipline among themselves to make the party lovable for all Bazzukulu in the country.
“Let’s not hold the party at ransom, we should ensure that we emulate the leadership of our Principal and Jajja H.E Yoweri Museveni for the way he loves us all as party members and how he wholeheartedly involves everyone in the party leadership,” The Secretary-General emphasized.
The Roadmap for Village, Sub County and District NRM Elections
While presenting the revised roadmap of the upcoming party electoral activities, the NRM Electoral Commission Chairperson, Dr Tanga Odoi, said the update is the party register will begin on 13th to 17th March 2024, the display of the party will take place in all the 72000 villages in the country.
“On the final date (17th March 2024), all villages around the country will hold the Baraza to ascertain the details entered in the village register, this will help confirm that these are bonafide registered members in the ruling party, ” Dr Tanga submitted before the NRM National Chairman.
The electoral activities according to Dr Tanga will start at the village level. They will take a run up until the end of March when all party chairpersons at the village level will be elected and confirmed.
Between March 19 and 24, Dr Tanga said the party shall call for expression of interest and nominate candidates for the party structures at the village and cell level and between arch 25 and 26, campaigns will be organized in every village.
“On March, 27, the party shall have polling and announcement of results of party structures at village level and on April, 5, the compiling of the register will start at the parish level, and on 12, a compilation of the voters register and polling of party structures will take place at sub-county and town council levels,” stated Dr Tanga.
The exercise will continue at municipal and city division levels on April, 16, district and city levels on April, 19 whereas between April, 20 and 30, will be for compilation of the register and sending final results to the party secretariat.”
Dr Tanga emphasized that despite reports confirming candidates for the 2026 elections, the exact dates for the party primaries and presidential flag bearer elections will be communicated soon after the elections to the district level are concluded.
Why the Register Update Exercise?
The rationale of the party register update according to the Secretariat is to ensure that members details are up-to-date, most especially those who joined NRM before obtaining national IDs with their Identification details.
The exercise is also aimed at weaving out non-existent members who perhaps may have deceased or decided to abandon or join another political party.
It should be understood that Ugandan registered voter cannot have more than one political affiliation, which means for one to join the NRM or another party, they have to cease their current membership first, as formal as it should be.
The launch of the NRM Party Register Update on Wednesday attracted several top leaders in the ruling party who included; the First National Vice Chairman of the NRM, Al-Haji Moses Kigongo, the 2nd National Vice Chairman, Rt Hon Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga, the Office of the National Chairman Head, Hajjat Hadijah Namyalo Uzeiye, the Deputy Secretary General, Mrs Rosemary Namayanja Nsereko, Emmanuel Dombo Lumala, the Director Communications and Media Relations at NRM, among others.
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