NUP Protests Exclusion from IPOD Talks

By Kabuye Ronald

The National Unity Platform (NUP), Uganda’s leading opposition party, has lodged a strong protest to the Electoral Commission, condemning what it describes as its “illegal exclusion” from discussions concerning the Inter-Party Organisation for Dialogue (IPOD), despite recent legislative changes making IPOD a statutory body under the National Consultative Forum (NCF).

In a letter dated Wednesday 17th, September and addressed to the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, NUP’s Secretary General, David Lewis Rubongoya, reiterated the party’s earlier concerns raised in communications dated September 4 and 12, 2025. These letters, previously sent to the Minister of Justice and the Executive Director of IPOD respectively, were also copied to the Electoral Commission but, according to NUP, have gone unanswered.

The protest comes just hours before an IPOD summit scheduled for Thursday, September 18, 2025, which is expected to deliberate on key aspects of the recently amended Political Parties and Organisations Act, 2005. NUP, which holds parliamentary representation, says it has once again been excluded from participation, a move it deems illegal.

“Despite our protests and requests for information, we have received no response,” reads the letter. “We are now aware that a summit has been convened to discuss the amended law, yet NUP has been deliberately left out again.”

According to NUP, the recent amendments passed by Parliament converted IPOD from a private entity, previously registered as a company limited by guarantee into a statutory organ under the National Consultative Forum NCF. The party argues that in the absence of a statutory instrument outlining how parties can join or exit the NCF, the current discussions are not only exclusionary but lack legal basis.

“It follows therefore, that political parties with representation in Parliament must be invited after the publication of the statutory instrument to decide whether or not to continue being part of the NCF and its organs,” Rubongoya emphasized.

The letter urges the Electoral Commission, as the constitutional custodian of political parties in Uganda, to “ensure that all discussions related to the amended law are inclusive and are conducted in accordance with the law.” It also calls on the Commission to assert its independence and resist compliance with “any illegal directives arising out of the said illegal processes.”

Copies of the letter were sent to top government and parliamentary officials including the Speaker of Parliament, the Leader of the Opposition, the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, the Attorney General, and all Secretaries General of political parties with parliamentary representation.