Ugandans advocate for popular participatory democracy
By Our Correspondent
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Now, l have heard some leaders calling for diluting our popular participatory democracy by a call to return to a Westminster system where a leader of a majority party in parliament forms government.
We are not growing from a reverse, that is where we started from. They claim that without President Museveni as a candidate , NRM can not win presidential direct elections. They should know that even without Bobi Wine, NUP could not win those 61 seats.
 As a country, let us build strong institutions including parties, but of course with charismatic leaders.
The danger with Parliament acting as an electoral college is that a enemy foreign power or corporation can by a parliamentary caucus to oust a leader and replace him or her with a puppet , whichever is not easy with direct presidential elections.
We should also devolve power to the regions with directly elected regional premiers and assemblies.
Some proportional representation where a first run up in presidential elections is a leader of opposition in Parliament and party presidents of parties represented in Parliament are specially elected members should be considered.
What is Participatory Democracy?
Participatory democracy or participative democracy emphasizes the broad participation of constituents in the direction and operation of political systems. Etymological roots of democracy (Greek demos and kratos) imply that the people are in power and thus that all democracies are participatory. Democracies fall into two basic categories, direct and representative. In a direct democracy, citizens, without the intermediary of elected or appointed officials, can participate in making public decisions.
By voting, citizens are participating in the democratic process. Citizens vote for leaders to represent them and their ideas, and the leaders support the citizens’ interests. There are two special rights only for U.S. citizens: voting in federal elections and running for federal office.
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