FDC's former President Dr. Kizza Besigye said all Ugandans are prisoners who should work together to liberate themselves instead of focusing on the party colors.
Capt. Mike Mukula, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party, Vice-Chairperson, Eastern Region, has blamed the Vice President, Rtd. Major Jesca Alupo for ignoring the main NRM campaign task-force during the Soroti East by-election and chose to work in isolation.
Mulekwah’s was electoral task wasn’t an easy: he was an electoral documentation officer for Pallisa district and his key assignment was coordination of compilation of a handwritten register for the Constituent Assembly elections as a part-timer recruited by the district returning officer.
Candidates contesting for positions in Lower Local Council are required to pay 20,000 Shillings, those vying for district Council positions pay 50,000 Shillings, Municipal Councilors pay 50,000 Shillings while Members of Parliament pay three million Shillings for their nomination.
Muntu made the comment during the ANT post-election review in Soroti on Saturday while meeting candidates who participated in the 2021 general elections from Teso sub region. He noted that whereas elections are supposed to open gates for the fresh breed of leaders with development ideas, some of the politicians only join the arena to make ends meet.
Partick Kintu Kisekulo, the chairperson for Kyotera district says the victims were last night dropped in different trading centers by people driving in security vehicles commonly known as Toyota drones.
Bazzanya, who identifies himself as a builder and businessman, contends that Ssebamala was not validly elected. He argues that the MP-elect through his agents with his full knowledge and consent committed several illegalities and electoral offences during campaigns contrary to the laws governing Parliamentary Election.
The majority of these independent candidates who ended up winning the races albeit with small margins, contested in NRM primaries but chose to contest as independents after being defeated from within the party. A number of those who lost have now run to court to try and nullify the outcome.
“We shall have 109 members of parliament on the opposition side in the 11th parliament, if we had worked together probably we would be 150," said Ssemujju, who is running for speaker and still hopes to win with such a House composition. "But in politics we never learn lessons because that has been the case for all the previous elections.”
Led by Joseph Kasirye, the National Unity Platform registrar for Masaka City, the activists who include members of two other opposition parties; the Forum for Democratic Change-FDC and Democratic Party-DP, argue that the current electoral laws are still weak to stop vote-rigging.
The National Unity Platform president had indicated that his party was to deliver a petition to the Chief of Defense Forces-CDF, Gen. David Muhoozi to demand the release of his supporters who were illegally detained. Immediately after the press conference that took place at his offices in Kamwokya, the army and the police surrounded the premises checking every car that left the building.
Urban districts have always registered a low voter turnout. For instance, in the January 2021 presidential election, Kampala had a 43 percent voter turnout. In 2016, it polled 51.48 percent, 41.52 per cent in 2011, 58.7 per cent in 2006.
Ssempijja, who spoke after Bagiire said that they suffered the wrath of the voters when some of his opponents spread lies about the alleged theft of money from desert locust interventions. He noted that even after being cleared by the auditor general, there was nothing much left to save him.
The turmoil according to party officials, also scared away those who would have contested on the party ticket. Before the election, of the 37 MPs the party has in the 10th parliament, only 22 contested again on the party ticket. According to Patrick Amuriat Oboi, the party president who was also its flagbearer in the presidential election, those who wanted to kill FDC were unsuccessful. Amuriat who was elected party president in 2017, said he was happy that the party proved a hard nut to crack by its distractors.
Amuriat explains that he got into direct confrontations with security agencies—mainly police and the army—on several occasion. For instance, he says he was arrested 13 times, confined in different places, taken to court three times.
“We have a principle called "Prior full and informed consent", where counsel has to tell everything to his client about what he should expect from court. I have a feeling that if Kyagulanyi was properly briefed on the nature of our court, probably he wouldn’t have gone to court in the first place,” Ssemakadde said.
Unlike previous elections where Museveni won in both districts, he lost to the National Unity Platform (NUP) candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu also known as Bobi Wine. Bobi Wine won Buvuma district with 64 per cent of the total votes cast while Museveni scored 32 per cent, a drop from the 57 per cent score against Kiiza Besigye in 2016.
The said polling stations account for 22,103 registered voters and are part of the 83 stations across the country whose results were nullified by the Electoral Commission. The highest number of these were from Kawempe North.
Godfrey Kiwuuwa, the chairperson of Kitaka cell in Nyendo ward, a registered voter at Market Triangle disputes polls results on the tally sheet, indicating that figures from his polling station were exchanged during the final tallying process hence giving President Museveni a false win.
