The People's Progressive Party (PPP) is a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The south ...

founded in 2004 by

Jaberi Bidandi Ssali Jaberi Bidandi Ssali, also Bidandi Ssali (born 1937), is a veteran Ugandan politician and businessman. He is the founder of the People's Progressive Party in Uganda and served as its president. Previously he was Minister for Local Government ...

. It had first the name of National Progressive Movement (NPM) before becoming PPP in December 2005. Its motto is "Together in progress", while its symbol is a lamp alight in the centre of the map of Uganda with the inscription PPP within the map. Its colours are red, orange, blue and white.

Ideology

The birth of PPP was based on the realization of the sectarian and untenable premises on which political organizations in the country had been formed and managed, leading to political instability,

balkanization Balkanization is the fragmentation of a larger region or state into smaller regions or states, which may be hostile or uncooperative with one another. It is usually caused by differences of ethnicity, culture, and religion and some other factor ...

, factionalism and marginalization. The founder members of PPP believed that for a party to be entrusted with the

governance Governance is the process of interactions through the laws, norms, power or language of an organized society over a social system ( family, tribe, formal or informal organization, a territory or across territories). It is done by the ...

of the country, it must be well organized internally and institutionalized. This can be done by building a strong ideological base, structures/organs and provision of alternative policy platform for the governance of the country. Founder members further believed that a party that can be entrusted with the life of a country must respect and uphold democratic principles such as

transparency Transparency, transparence or transparent most often refer to: * Transparency (optics), the physical property of allowing the transmission of light through a material They may also refer to: Literal uses * Transparency (photography), a still ...

, accountability, inclusiveness, and respect for institutions, laws, human rights and other liberties. Such a party must also take into account

’s violent past and thus forge unity and reconciliation and cultivate a culture of peaceful resolution of political disagreements. Therefore, the founder members of PPP envisioned a

that is not only strong and united but also well governed, democratic, peaceful, just and prosperous. All these are encapsulated in the mission, character, values as well as objectives of the party. It needs to be noted that as the party changed its name from NPM to PPP, it also amended various articles of the

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princip ...

. The new constitution was eventually adopted as a guiding document for the party in the 2008 Delegates’ Conference. In pursuance of its mission and to realize its vision, People’s Progressive Party is guided by four main principles and/or values : * Peacefulness * Non confrontation in solving political impasse * Non violent approach to political development * Mentoring young people in political leadership Article 7 of the PPP constitution defines the character of the party as : * Democratic * Non Sectarian * Pro-people * Progressive

Structure

Over the years, the party has done mobilization throughout Uganda, recruited nearly 100,000 members and instituted party structures in many parts of the country. The party held its first ever delegates’ conference in June 2008. The conference was attended by about 1500 delegates from 40 districts. The main mandate of the conference was to elect party leaders. Indeed, party leaders were elected and this included the election of leaders of women and youth leagues as well as leaders of the wings of persons with disabilities and the elderly. The election and constitution of the party leadership consequently gave the party the gravitas to contest in the general election of February 2011. The party fielded a presidential candidate, 32 parliamentary candidates, one LCV candidate and nearly 200 candidates for the lower local government positions. Of these candidates, the party succeeded in getting one LCIII chairman, sub-county and parish councilors, elected. The other success that the party registered during the campaigns was introducing PPP to the whole country and establishing contacts for continued mobilization across the country.

References

{{Ugandan political parties 2004 establishments in Uganda Political parties established in 2004 Political parties in Uganda Social democratic parties in Africa Socialism in Uganda