The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) is set to convene the National Council to decide on who will carry the party flag in the 2021 general elections.
According to party spokesperson who double as Kira Municipality MP Ibrahim Semujju Nganda, the national council will take place on October 6th 2020 at party headquarters.
The FDC National Council comprises District Chairmen and Members of the National Executive Committee. The District Chairmen coming to the Council will first convene delegates from their respective districts to obtain a mandate to elect a presidential candidate on their behalf.
“The district chairpersons will first convene delegates from their respective districts to obtain a mandate to elect a presidential candidate on their behalf at the party headquarters. By close of business next Tuesday, the country will know the candidate going to carry our presidential flag,” Mr Ssemujju said.
He said the two aspirants are currently in western region where they have held joint campaigns since last week.
“The candidates met delegates from Ankole in Mbarara and Bushenyi [districts] on Saturday. They also campaigned in Rukungiri, Kanungu [districts] and met the rest of Kigezi delegates in Kabale District last evening,” Mr Ssemujju said.
Mr Ssemujju also castigated the process in the ongoing nominations for the local government councils candidates by the Electoral Commission (EC), accusing it of failing to manage the exercise. “These nominations have been poorly conducted, especially in urban centres where the number of councillors are obviously high. Candidates have had to sleep at nomination centres in Wakiso, Mukono and other areas. In some extreme cases, candidates have had to bribe security personnel at the gates to access returning officers,” he said.
“Midway the exercise in Wakiso, the format of nominations changed from first come first serve to allocating days to a constituency. Some candidates are up to now without a certificate of nomination. The EC chairperson, Justice [Simon] Byabakama, must investigate these irregularities or else they will be repeated during the general elections,” he added.
Nominations of Local Government councils candidates are slated to end on October 1.
However, the acting EC spokesperson, Mr Paul Bukenya, dismissed the allegation, saying the nomination exercise is moving on smoothly.
He said those who have not yet received their nomination certificates might not have fulfilled the requirements. “The exercise is still ongoing so it is speculative and inciting to say some people might be left out. Local Government attracts big numbers, that is why we gave it more days of nominations and everything will end smoothly,” Mr Bukenya said.
Mr Ssemujju asked the EC to release a clear campaign strategy for all categories of electoral positions.
“Now that candidates have and are being nominated, the EC must issue clear and specific guidelines on how campaigns are going to be conducted. We need to know the number of meetings and number of attendees allowed. The number of people attending MPs and presidential campaigns should be higher,” he said.
