SLEEP ON!

October 4, 2013, By KNews, Filed Under Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom, Source

The opposition needs to wake up. They are accusing the government of frustrating the holding of local government elections. But while they are making noises about local government Bills not being assented to as yet; while they are awaiting this process so that they can calculate just when local government elections will be held, the PPP is in full campaign mode.

The opposition feels that the PPP is afraid to go to the polls and this they feel accounts for why recently passed local government elections Bills have not yet been assented to. While the opposition parties are making these claims, the PPP has already announced that it is in elections mode.
That mode will be intensified this weekend.

This year marks the 21st anniversary of the return to office of the PPP. Last year was a more significant anniversary and last year’s observances were far less low-key than this year.

Is it by accident or a coincidence that the PPP is going to have massive rallies this year as against last year? Is it also by accident that GuyExpo is being held this weekend, the anniversary of the return to democracy?

Is it going to be a coincidence that government ministers and party leaders are going to have a very visible presence at this weekend’s GuyExpo?  Not it is not! The campaign has begun!

The saddest part of it all is that neither APNU nor the AFC seems to have recognized this fact. As a consequence, they are wasting precious energies on demanding to know why certain Bills have not been assented to when they should have been gearing for local government elections which requires far earlier and far more campaigning than general and regional elections.

The local government Bills will be assented to in due course. These are not one-page Bills. As such they require time for the legal draughtsman to check. Also the President has to be satisfied that the Bills presented reflect what was passed in the National Assembly and has been properly drafted. Legal drafting is a meticulous and painstaking process. It takes time and so too is the process of ensuring that a Bill comprising many articles is proper to be assented to.

The opposition should have no fear about these Bills being assented to. The President had indicated a long time ago that he will assent to the Bills. Why the opposition wants it to be done swiftly is because they are suspicious that the process of assent can be used by the President to determine when local government elections are held, and they are fearful that they can be caught off-guard by not having enough time to prepare for elections.

This should be the least of their worries. From the time the Bills are assented to, to the time polls are held, will involve a six-month period, so there is no need for the opposition to worry about not being given adequate notice.

What they have to worry about is whether they can get their campaign off the ground and if they will be able to avoid the humiliation that is in store for them. The PPP has gotten a head start on them and is gearing for a long campaign. It has made a rapid start and this will continue right through to the polls. The opposition in the meantime does not seem to be in any state of readiness for elections.

The opposition has to prepare itself for licks like peas whenever local government elections are held. The opposition will hold key municipalities but they will lose as they did in 1994 when the PPP swept 60% of the polls. The PPP knows how to win elections. It has been doing it for a long time and it will do it again.

The mistakes that were made in 2011 will not be repeated. The ruling party’s activists have been highly visible in their constituencies and what happened in 2011 when due to complacency their supporters stayed away will not recur.

While the opposition has been making waves in the National Assembly, chopping this and chopping that, shutting down this project and stifling others, the PPP has been making hay. The supporters of the PPP have witnessed over the past two years just how brutal the opposition can be and the extent to which the opposition is prepared to jeopardize the future of this country. They have seen the opposition in action and this has galvanized them.

But the PPP is still taking no chances. It has begun to oil its campaign machinery and with the resources at its disposal, it will win again and win big, especially since the opposition seems to be sleeping.