Tension is high in the Forum for Democratic Change as retired Maj General Mugisha Muntu, its president, moves to resolve the internal strife that has dogged Uganda’s largest opposition party for the past nine months.

According to party officials, Maj Gen Muntu, a former army commander, has set September 27 as the tentative date for an initial meeting where an eight-person committee of party elders and eminent people are expected to report on their efforts to heal the longstanding rift. One or two more meetings are expected before the matter is finally settled.

“By the end of October or the first week of November, this matter should have been conclusively addressed,” Dan Mugarura, former chair of the party’s electoral commission, told The EastAfrican.

The committee of elders is the latest of the party’s repeated attempts to amicably resolve a dispute that originated in the November 22, 2012 elections to replace former party president Dr Kizza Besigye. Maj Gen Muntu won with 393 votes against Nathan Nandala-Mafabi’s 361 and Geoffrey Ekanya’s 17.

Following the election, the team led by Mr Nandala, who leads the opposition in parliament, filed a petition to the party’s national executive committee, complaining about “serious irregularities without which the team would have won.”

READ: Polls over, FDC must now reknit fractured ranks

Without seeking to overturn the elections, the petition prayed for a thorough investigation and exposure of all “irregularities resulting from acts of omission or commission” in order that there be reconciliation and healing in the party.

The team claimed the “irregularities” related to multiple voting allegations against Alice Alaso, the party’s secretary general, and that Mr Mugarura unconstitutionally swore in Maj Gen Muntu, whose conduct they called into question on the grounds that he used abusive language to characterise Mr Nandala during his campaigns.

Since the year began, there have been several attempts, including a truth and reconciliation commission, to heal the rift. These attempts have, at best, only achieved fleeting success.

Ironically, by recommending fresh elections, the commission created the single worst problem for the party since it wound up its work in early May.

Party insiders fear decisions made following the meetings could trigger a split that could reshape Uganda’s political landscape in the same way the FDC’s own birth nearly a decade ago did.

“The particular failure to make a final pronouncement on whether the elections will be repeated has engendered a lot of bad blood and made the atmosphere within the party unfriendly,” Ms Alaso, Woman MP for Soroti District, told The EastAfrican.

“It is clear to most of us that the elections will not be repeated and so that pronouncement, risky as it is, must be made. After all, true leadership is about risk taking,” said Ms Alaso, who lost the Leader of Opposition vote to Mr Nandala.

“You cannot stop anybody from leaving you. Party membership is voluntary since people come together or are drawn to it because of a shared worldview. Now, if anyone has a change of mind and decides to leave, what can you do?” she added.

Mr Mugarura, however, allayed fears of a split. “We have not reached that extent. There are no extreme positions any more. The way I see things now, the agitation and anger has come down. In meetings, there is genuine engagement and laughter,” he said.

Amanya Mushega, the party’s western region vice president and one of its eminent members, all but accused Ladislaus Rwakafuzi, who chaired the truth and reconciliation commission, of smuggling it into his recommendations and of telling lies, concocting stories and giving lame excuses.

“How did your commission come to recommend the holding of fresh elections from the grassroots? It is common knowledge that elections for grassroots structures are due to take place,” Mr Mushega wrote in an August 6 comment in the Daily Monitor.

Citing some of the commission’s terms of reference in respect to listening, arbitrating and reconciling the warring camps in order that the party proceeds in harmony, the former secretary general of the EAC accused Mr Rwakafuzi of doing anything but what he had been appointed to do.

Mr Rwakafuzi declined to respond to Mr Mushega’s comments, saying the party had set a date at which the matter will be debated. However, he, like Mr Mugarura, downplayed its potential to split the party.

“There is a lot at stake and there are people like Muntu there who are able to wade through these rough waters and keep the party together. It is not easy but it has to be done,” Mr Rwafukuzi said.

Party members will be watching to see how Maj Gen Muntu will tackle this issue. Will he break with his calm and cautious approach and put his foot down as the commander he once was?