https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7108-6265
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ABSTRACT
In July 2018, the office of village chairperson (Local Council 1/LC1) was contested throughout Uganda in open elections for the first time in almost two decades. These offices, central to the National Resistance Movement’s (NRM) famed decentralisation project in its early years in power, continue to have immense significance in the daily lives of most Ugandans. While their long-awaited re-election provides a worthy focus of study in its own right, this article uses the occasion to test a broader set of claims about the evolution of village chairpersons under the NRM, and how variations in their exposure to competitive politics fits into a broader strategy of regime consolidation since 1986. Based on ethnographic research conducted between 2015 and 2017, the article will argue that LC1s should not necessarily be considered ‘illegitimate’ in the eyes of most citizens due to their long period without election before 2018, and that in many important respects they differ significantly from higher levels of local political office. Instead, it configures their place in the broader dominant party system, their main role in the maintenance of which is as symbolic as it is structural.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Remote interview with former Kyenjojo MP candidate, 31 July 2021; Remote interview with political assistant to Bugiri candidate, 30 July 2021.
2 Mamdani, “Uganda in Transition,” 1168; Kasfir, “The Ugandan Elections of 1989,” 255.
3 Oloka-Onyango, “The National Resistance Movement,” 133; Golooba-Mutebi, “Reassessing Popular Participation in Uganda,” 291.
4 In rural areas the RC4 (county) level was not used other than as national constituencies for the NRC. In urban areas the structure was slightly different, with RC4s acting at the level of municipality.
5 Mamdani, “The Politics of Democratic Reform in Uganda,” 7; Tukahebwa, “The Role of District Councils,” 3.
6 Kasfir, “No-Party Democracy in Uganda,” 54; Golooba-Mutebi, “Reassessing Popular Participation in Uganda,” 291.
7 Ddungu, “Popular Forms and the Question of Democracy,” 366.
8 According to the few sources which discuss Mayumba Kumi, these bodies were either seen as regime appendages, points of commodity distribution, local vigilante groups, bodies powerless before the local chiefs, or a combination of each. See: Tukahebwa, “The Role of District Councils,” 3; Tideman, “The Resistance Councils in Uganda,” 55; Gertzel, “Uganda after Amin”; Oloka-Onyango, “Governance, Democracy and Development in Uganda Today.”
9 Ddungu and Wabwire, “Electoral Mechanisms and the Democratic Process,” 47.
10 Oloka-Onyango, “The Labours of Drawing Up a Human Rights Balance Sheet,” 4–5.
11 Kiyaga-Nsubuga, “Political Instability and the Struggle for Control in Uganda, 1970–1990,” 241.
12 Government of Uganda, Resistance Councils and Committees Statute, 1987, 5.
13 Kiyaga-Nsubuga, “Political Instability and the Struggle for Control in Uganda, 1970–1990,” 241; Kasfir, “No-Party Democracy in Uganda,” 54; Brett, “The Resistance Council System and Local Administration in Uganda,” 14; Muhumuza, “From Fundamental Change to No Change,” 27; Rubongoya, Regime Hegemony in Museveni’s Uganda, 74.
14 Burkey, “People’s Power in Theory and Practice,” 22.
15 Ddungu and Wabwire, “Electoral Mechanisms and the Democratic Process,” 13.
16 Burkey, “People’s Power in Theory and Practice,” 38; Mbazira, “Dream Deferred?” 19.
17 Oloka-Onyango, “Enter the Dragon, Exit the Myths,” 107.
18 Ddungu and Wabwire, “Electoral Mechanisms and the Democratic Process,” 9; Mamdani, “The Politics of Democratic Reform in Uganda,” 10.
19 Muhumuza, “From Fundamental Change to No Change,” 28–29.
20 Geist, “Political Significance of the Constituent Assembly Elections,” 94–95.
21 Katorobo, “Electoral Choices in the Constituent Assembly Elections of March 1994,” 124; Carbone, No-Party Democracy? 37.
22 Makara et al., “Turnaround.”
23 Tideman, “The Resistance Councils in Uganda,” 95.
24 Burkey, “People’s Power in Theory and Practice,” 35.
25 Kiyaga-Nsubuga, “Political Instability and the Struggle for Control in Uganda, 1970-1990,” 241.
26 Burkey, “People’s Power in Theory and Practice,” 42.
27 See for example Ddungu and Wabwire, “Electoral Mechanisms and the Democratic Process,” 47; Tideman “The Resistance Councils in Uganda”; Burkey, “People’s Power in Theory and Practice”; Kiyaga-Nsubuga, “Political Instability and the Struggle for Control in Uganda, 1970-1990,” 241.
28 Oloka-Onyango, “The Labours of Drawing Up a Human Rights Balance Sheet,” 5; Golooba-Mutebi, “Reassessing Popular Participation in Uganda,” 293.
29 Muhumuza, “The 1998 Local Government Elections and Democratization in Uganda,” 230.
30 Burkey, “People’s Power in Theory and Practice,” 29.
31 Manyak and Katono, “Impact of Multiparty Politics on Local Government in Uganda,” 29.
32 Muhumuza, “‘Fading Support’?” 439.
33 Golooba-Mutebi, “Reassessing Popular Participation in Uganda,” 293.
34 See Jones, Beyond the State in Rural Uganda; Golola, “Decentralization, Local Bureaucracies and Service Delivery in Uganda”; Kakumba, “Local Government Citizen Participation and Rural Development”; Muhumuza, “Fading Support?”; Ddungu, “Popular Forms and the Question of Democracy,” 385.
35 Byarugaba, “Bunyoro Voters Wary of ‘Unholy’ Alliances in 1996 Elections,” 94.
36 Tukahebwa, “‘Block Voting’ in South Western Uganda,” 188.
37 Mukwaya, “‘Movementisation’ of Politics in Busoga,” 168; Makara, “Voting for Democracy in Uganda,” 21.
38 Oloka-Onyango, “The Labours of Drawing Up a Human Rights Balance Sheet,” 6.
39 Muhumuza, “‘Fading Support’?” 169.
40 Oloka-Onyango, “The Labours of Drawing Up a Human Rights Balance Sheet,” 6.
41 Constitutional Court of Uganda, “Rubaramira Ruranga v. Electoral Commission and the Attorney General,” 15.
42 Nalugo, “Why Government is Reluctant to Hold LC1 Polls.”
43 Ibid.
44 Uganda Radio Network, “No Money for LC Elections.”
45 Nalugo, “Why Government is Reluctant to Hold LC1 Polls.”
46 See for example Rubongoya, Regime Hegemony in Museveni’s Uganda; Tripp, Museveni’s Uganda, 4.
47 Muhumuza, “‘Fading Support’?” 141.
48 Rubongoya, Regime Hegemony in Museveni’s Uganda, 189. Robongoya notes that this applies “especially to LC3 levels and above”, but also to the whole LC system.
49 I should note that other research has found that positions other than the chairperson, especially the secretary of defence, was active.
50 Interview with voter, Kyenjojo, 24 February 2016.
51 Interview with voter, Kyenjojo, 18 October 2015.
52 Interview with voter, Kayunga, 2 February 2016.
53 Interview with voter, Kyenjojo, 23 October 2015. See also: Brisset-Foucault, “Bureaucratic Interpersonal Knowledge”; Muriaas, “Reintroducing a Local-Level Multiparty System in Uganda,” 110.
54 Interview with voter, Kayunga, 4 February 2016. See also Hopwood and Atkinson, “Developing a Land Conflict and Mapping Tool”, 3 [FN].
55 Interview with voter, Kyenjojo, 18 October 2015.
56 Interview with voter, Kayunga, 4 February 2016.
57 Interview with voter, Bugiri, 23 January 2016.
58 Suzuki, “Parental Participation and Accountability in Primary Schools in Uganda.”
59 Tapscott, Arbitrary States.
60 Interview with Asuman Basalirwa, 12 February 2016; interview with voter, Bugiri, 23 January 2016.
61 Interview with voter, Bugiri, 11 January 2016.
62 Interview with voter, Kayunga, 4 February 2016.
63 Interview with voter, Kayunga, 3 February 2016.
64 Interview with voter, Kyenjojo, 18 October 2015.
65 Interview with voter, Kayunga, 8 March 2016.
66 Interview with voter, Bugiri, 11 January 2016.
67 Interview with voter, Kyenjojo, 24 February 2016.
68 Interview with voter, Bugiri, 16 January 2016.
69 Interview with voter, Kayunga, 10 January 2016.
70 For more on anti-incumbency attitudes that interviewees held against these offices see Wilkins, “Subnational Turnover, Accountability Politics, and Electoral Authoritarian Survival.”
71 Note that the term “micro-politics” is used to refer to different things in academic literature. While some scholars use the “micro-” preface to refer to small actions or barely perceptible forms of communication and communication, I use it to refer to the population and proximity of the polity. For a similar usage see Moore, “Post-Socialist Micro-Politics.”
72 Ahikire, Localised or Localising Democracy, 139.
73 Ottemoeller, “Popular Perceptions of Democracy,” 109.
74 Interview with aid of opposition MP, Bugiri, 29 February 2016.
75 Interview with voter, Kyenjojo, 18 October 2015. Note that it is not clear whether the “they” in the second sentence refers to the LC1 specifically or simply other residents of the village. Either way the LC1’s role in the criminalisation of the opposition is clear.
76 For more on this process in the 2016 election, see Wilkins, “Capture the flag.”
77 Interview with political assistant of Bugiri MP candidate, Bugiri, 27 March 2016. For more on the historical overlap between state and party NRM committees see Muhumuza, “‘Fading Support’?” 154.
78 Interview with voter, Bugiri, 14 February 2016.
79 Interview with political assistant of MP candidate, Kyenjojo 17 February 2016.
80 Interview with political assistant of Bugiri MP candidate, Bugiri, 27 March 2016.
81 Interview with voter, Bugiri, 23 January 2016.
82 Interview with Kyenjojo MP candidate, Kyenjojo, 19 March 2017.
83 See Wilkins, “Capture the Flag.”
84 Interview with voter, Kayunga, 4 February 2016.
85 For more on how the regime’s is “embedded” in the rural electorate rather than simply “imposed” upon it, see Vokes and Wilkins, “Party, patronage and coercion in the NRM’s 2016 re-election in Uganda.”
86 Interview with voter, Kayinga, 3 February 2016, interview with voter, Bugiri, 16 January 2016.
87 Interview with aid of opposition MP, Bugiri, 29 February 2016.
88 Muhumuza says that the LC system was thoroughly “fused” with the identity of the NRM. See Muhumuza, “'Fading Support’?” 169.
89 Interview with voter, Bugiri, 11 January 2016.
90 Interview with voter, Kayunga, 10 January 2016.
91 Interview with Independent local politician, Bugiri, 7 March 2016.
92 See Wilkins, The Dominant Party System in Uganda.
93 Interview with LC1 chairperson, Bugiri, 13 February 2016.
94 Interview with voter, Kyenjojo, 22 October 2015.