Opposition Democratic Party (DP) has reaffirmed its commitment to fronting a presidential candidate in the forthcoming elections despite delaying to submit supporter forms to the Electoral Commission (EC) for verification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Section 10(b) of the Presidential Elections Act provides that a presidential candidate\u2019s nomination shall be supported by not less than 100 persons who are registered voters, from not less than 98 districts, which form two thirds of all the districts of Uganda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As of yesterday, the EC had received supporter signatures of atleast 22 presidential aspiring candidates of which four had been verified and 18 under verification ahead of the nominations scheduled for 2nd<\/sup> and 3rd<\/sup> November 2020. \u00a0Notably missing on the list was Nobert Mao the DP presidential flag bearer which raised suspension that the party could have backed out on their plans to front a presidential candidate in the 2021 polls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, while addressing the party\u2019s weekly press conference in Kampala today, Enock Opio the DP spokesperson said their decision to front a presidential candidate in the coming election still stands and by Thursday this week, they will have submitted the reguired signatures to the EC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He explained that in a country where the freedom to interact with voters by the opposition is curtailed, the party decided to use the period of collecting signatures to also interact with the voters as a strategy to gain grass root support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe reason we have taken a little longer is because we are using this period as a chance to interact with the voters. What we have been doing is building rapport with the voters, identifying agents in every village such that when we roll out our campaign strategy definitely we shall know that we have pillars in every village so it has just been strategic that we take a little longer to submit our signatures. But they are ready, today or tomorrow or the other day, we shall be handing them to the EC.\u201d Explained Opio<\/p>\n\n\n\n Opio turned down pleas by some party members who don\u2019t want the party to front a presidential flag bearer in the coming polls noting that the preserve of determination of whether to have a formal coalition is for the National Delegates Conference which sat last month and agreed to front a presidential candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur major objective it to take state power and there is no other way you can satisfy that objective without fronting a presidential candidate unless there is such a formal arrangement with other political institutions that we should back another party\u2019s candidature.\u201d Said Opio<\/p>\n\n\n\n He added \u201cI tried to interrogate the motive behind the calls from these people that we shouldn\u2019t front a presidential candidate and realized that they believe that if DP fronts a presidential candidate, their support base is going to be shuttered. For they only focus on their interest, they are not looking at the general objective of the party.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, the DP has unveiled a contest aimed at engaging Ugandans in the design of an official campaign poster for the party\u2019s presidential flag bearer in the 2021 general polls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n