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.
According to Namatovu, because of her hearing impairment, her deceased son was a vital part of her life matrix since he served as her interpreter. Representing people with disabilities at Kawempe Division Council, she has already tested the perils of her son’s demise. “Now, the people I represent quarrel because they call and no one picks, they say I am not working,” she said.
The DP Spokesperson, Enock Opio Okoler said that given the challenges the party faced before the general elections, the performance of the party lays a good foundation to revive the party.
The Electoral Commission (EC) acting as provided for by the Presidential Elections Act (Amended 2020), under article 24 must see to it that the national broadcaster provides equal but free air space to all contending presidential candidates in an election.
They say that a number of their activities have been blocked, and sometimes they are barred from using certain roads to reach their campaign venues on time while oftentimes, their team members are beaten, arrested, or injured during running battles with security personnel.
Alex Katoora, a resident of Ntinda in Nakawa Division West told URN that he only knows three out of the 14 nominated parliamentary candidates in his area.
The four parties share among themselves 60 MPs with FDC having the lion’s share with 37 MPs, 15 for DP, seven for UPC and one for Jeema. However, for most of those 60 positions, not only is the NRM fronting candidates to try and capture them, but even other opposition parties want to capture the same seats.
Using Botometer, a social media observatory tool created at Indiana University which can detect suspected bot accounts, URN reporters found out that five of the top ten accounts tweeting about NRM manifesto messages and events are suspected bot accounts. Botometer places the likelihood of the accounts in question to be bots above 72 percent.
According to Paul Bukenya, the EC Manager Media and Public Relations, as of Tuesday 17, 2020 when the 14 days elapsed after presidential candidates were nominated and campaigns started, the commission did not receive a record from any of the presidential candidates.
