Contestants John Katumba and Willy Mayambala provided some comic relief to a presidential campaign that so far flatters to deceive.
The Covid-19 overhang means crowds can’t or won’t turn up to support their candidates stealing the thunder from what was potentially going to be an explosive contest.
The two afore mentioned candidates, the youngest in the 11 person field, discovered to their shock that the car provided by the Electoral Commission is only for the security details – each candidate is supposed to sort out their own transport needs. One of them, not two days into the campaign couldn’t feed his security detail. While another was feted when he walked into a Kampal arcade to have his mobile phone screen fixed.
While funny these events bring into sharp relief the issues of political victory.
"For the guerilla fighter if you survive to see the next day, that is victory....
Handicapping the field we can say, this is President Yoweri Museveni’s race to lose. Robert Kyagulanyi will provide a few flashes of brilliance and while he is firing up his base with hope of eventual victory, the more realistic goal is that his National Unity Platform (NUP) gets the most MPs in parliament of any opposition party to lead the opposition.
For more established campaigners like Mugisha Muntu, Norbert Mao, Henry Tumukunde and Patrick Oboi Amuriat the best they can hope for is increasing their name recognition, to set them up for future campaigns and to increase the visibility of their parties, again ahead of future elections.
Going by past performance and name recognition --- or lack of thereof, the rest are really just making up the numbers.
None of this is a bad thing.
There can only be one winner and all 11 contestants know it. For the sake of their sanity the rest have to recalibrate what victory means to them.
Beyond gunning for absolute victory, increasing influence in the house, setting up for future elections, there maybe a case for a candidate or candidates who run to highlight a particular issue. The benefit of the presidential campaigns is that over the 65 days of the campaign one can criss cross the length and breadth of this nation and talk to anyone willing to listen about their pet subject.
The front runners on their part will be trying to be all things to all men, but a fringe candidate can focus on a topic or handful of topics diverting little from their central theme for the next two months.
In a democratic society this is a good thing. In the US we had for along time Ralf Nader, turning up every four years to bat for environmental issues. In the UK there are parties pushing the self rule of the regions cause – their finest hour came with Brexit. And in any number of established democracies their small parties throwing their hats in to the race to front one peripheral issue or the other. And some are rewarded for their doggedness and persistence, albeit after years of straining at the bit.
"While people may not waste their votes on these outliers, a message is often wedged in our subconcious and can end up ricochetting around our heads, eventually gaining traction – and who knows, in a few years or decades become a mainstream issue....
And why not? When democracies took their first tentative steps decades ago the main parties were the conservative ones, often fronting the interests of the landed gentry. The industrial revolution came along and labour issues came to the fore, it too was a fringe issue at one time.
What is needed, and it will take time, is for the candidates fronting these seemingly sideline issues, to cobble a coherent message, articulate it better and maintain consistency over the long haul.
So
"While Katumba and Mayambala may seem like the trick ponies of this race, spare an ear for their message, however outlandish it may seem now....Who knows, one day in the future we will nod knowingly when we remember that this is what Katumba/Mayambala was talking about in 2020.
pbusharizi@newvision.co.ug
Twitter @pbusharizi
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