By Our Editorial Team

The New Vision newspaper reported on Thursday last week that the Electoral Commission held talks with officials from the Inter-Party Organisation for Dialogue to “…foster a strong and vibrant multiparty democracy” ahead of the 2011 polls.  The report also said the Inter-Party Organisation for Dialogue met the beleaguered EC Chairman Eng. Badru Kiggundu who apparently thanked them “…for their initiative to foster confidence and trust in the commission”.

The paper quoted Mr. Augustine Ruzindana, the opposition group’s Chairman, as having said that his group had “…opted for peaceful co-existence, dialogue and cooperation to mitigate political differences and avoid violence”.

That is cautiously welcome.  But we must emphasise that it is only “cautiously welcome”. And we hope too that the “fear of violence” reasons that Ruzindana’s group gave for meeting the EC does not in any way mean that they have sold out and decided to abandon the legitimate demands of the people of Uganda for a credible and independent Electoral Commission.  If they did, then that would be a grave betrayal for which Ruzindana’s group may never be forgiven.

The right to have free and fair elections must not in any way, shape, or form, be negotiable.  The fact that the Supreme Court of Uganda, the highest court in the land, has twice called the present EC’s ability to deliver free and fair elections into question must surely be sufficient reason for the people of Uganda to continue demanding, at whatever cost, that the same EC must never again be allowed to organise elections in Uganda.

The “fear of violence” that Ruzindana’s group cited is not, and must never in our view be seen as a good enough reason to deprive Ugandans of their fundamental right to free and fair elections.  In fact, no reason in the world should ever be considered good enough to deprive Ugandans of their right to free and fair elections.

Besides, abandoning our demands for free and fair elections now for “fear of violence” would ironically be the surest way of guaranteeing even worse violence in the aftermath of the flawed election that will take place.  Why can’t we ever learn?  The 2007 Kenyan post election violence is, for want of a better word, the best precedent that should guide our actions now.