Alice Alaso in middle addressing reporter on her right is former fellow legislator Gerald Karuhanga
Alliance for National Transformation Party (ANT) has argued fellow opposition political parties to first clean themselves internally if they are to take on President Museveni and his NRM in order to remove him from power come 20226 general elections.
The party National Coordinator Alice Alaso who is also the former woman MP for Serere District while addressing reporters at her party offices in Bukoto, Kampala Central on 3rd April 2024 said that opposition parties have been weakened internally therefore can’t take on Museveni in their current status.
She said this while launching the party’s eight activity Program that will saw party leaders traverse the country encouraging and registering of old and new members for their party in a way of preparing for the 2026 general elections.
“Strengthen yourself internally, if you if you are weak or we are weak and we make alliance we will bring our individual party weaknesses then the alliance won’t work out,’’ Alaso cautioned.
“We have started creating awareness for our party position and policy frame work, identifying potential leaders who will take on leadership positions and those who will carry our flag in the forthcoming general elections,’’ She revealed.
“ We want to build our party as a strong institution that will push all the way to grass roots and be strong enough to take on the country’s highest leadership offices.“
She said that they have so far combed 10 districts and in the released program they intend to reach out to 70 districts before the year ends and they be covering regions such as Tooro, West Nile, Karamoja Busoga and Acholi.
On the issue of allying with other parties to work together and see President Museveni out of office, she said that at the moment it’s not possible for her party because they need to build a strong foundation at the grass root level so as to have a strong sound capacity.
“ We need to enhance the leadership capacity of our party, such that we can be able to bring in individuals who understand our ideology and values, that is why we have embarked on training our potential leaders.’’
She further said that an alliance with the different opposition political parties is an ideal idea but at the moment she doesn’t see it viable but there certain areas were her party can work together with other parties for instance when pushing for the electoral reforms and changes in the political landscape in Uganda her party is open on that.
Alaso also observed that despite the initiation of several ant-corruption agencies in the country, government doesn’t have the will whatsoever to fight the corruption which has become chronic in the country saying that there’s a need for Ugandans to wake up and decide to overhaul the whole system of governance.
The Party’s publicity secretary Gerald Karuhanga said that many business companies have wound up their businesses due to the huge tax that is not proportionately returned to boost the economy in terms of government expenditure but rather a bigger portion is disappears in the hands of errant corrupt government officials.
“ We are on a time Bomb financially if business companies earning above Shs 100 billion have declined from 125 in June 2020 to just six in June 2023 as per Uganda Revenue Authority Report,’’ ‘’It means in government will now shift a huge tax burden to the small tax payers by introducing new taxes.’’ Karuhanga reasoned.
He also said that the idea of introducing the 2T tax on oil used by bodaboda motorcycle is not necessary because this will be a huge burden put on the poor people.