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.
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.
When our reporter revisited the polling station, the revelation threw whoever heard about it into laughter wondering where Katumba got such votes. “Are you talking about Katumba oyee? They asked, before erupting into laughter. That is not possible, another resident exclaimed. Several bodaboda riders near the polling station were amazed that this had happened in their area.
Yasin Ssekamatte, a Kampala based political Analyst says that such political waves are a reflection of frustration by those yearning for change, even when that change cannot bring eloquent leaders on board.
Mayambala Mustafa the vice chairman Joint taxi operator’s consortium {JOITCO} says there has been misrepresentation when it comes to setting laws that effectively impact Kampala people, caused by the technical and political gap between the policy makers at city hall and the people.
Although Kyagulanyi indicated his willingness to challenge the results, his party officials in an interview with Uganda Radio Network said they are not enthusiastic about it. Joel Ssenyonyi who speaks for NUP said, going to court is just one of the many options available to them.
The EC spokesperson points out that further investigation must be done on invalid vote numbers because spoilt votes generate from conduct and behavior of a voter and might be protest votes from people seen from the way they cross out some candidates’ names, which may yield high numbers of the spoilt votes.
165 polling stations, mainly in Kampala and Wakiso, have more than 1200 registered voters which are above the ceiling of voters supposed to be at a particular polling station in urban areas (and 900 in rural areas) according to Electoral Commission (EC) data.
With 5.65 million voters which is approximately 31.18 percent of the total registered voters and the NRM advantage on a downward spiral, Buganda is seen as a critical voting block which any candidate who wishes to win must bag.
Dr Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere, the former president of the Democratic Party says that the whole concept of multipartism is under microscopic examination as the country heads to the 2021 general election. He adds that a large number of individual candidates is a consequence of the persecution of the multiparty system, a sad development, according to him.
He says the large number of individual candidates is a consequence of the persecution of the multiparty system, something he describes as sad.
“The packing process is expected to take a period of seven days, after which the Commission will embark on the second round of packing materials for District/City Local Government Councils Elections,” the press statement reads in part.
Some of the cities and towns where the youngest candidate in the race intends to return include Gulu, Masaka, Mbale, Mbarara, Fort Portal, Soroti, and Kampala
Kyalimpa’s appointment and his subsequent withdrawal from the race shades light on how the NRM has used money, positions and in some cases underhand methods to entice or cajole candidates out of the race to allow its flag bearers go through unopposed.
James Katuntu, a mask vendor has been targeting motorists at Wandegeya. He told URN that he decided to stage at Wandegeya to sell masks to motorists stopped by police.
On Thursday George Karemera and Eric Sabiti lawyers from the Attorney General and Electoral Commission respectively argued that the constitutional court ruling was unlawful because the MPs were not given the chance to defend themselves in court.
This is according to a notice signed by the Registrar of the East African Court of Justice Yufnalis Okubo summoning Uganda’s Attorney General and Mabirizi to go and receive the ruling.
Demarcation of electoral areas is the process of identifying and creating electoral areas for purposes of representation of citizen in accordance with the law. Whereas, reorganization of polling stations involves placing voters in the right polling stations in an electoral area.
