DP ready to endorse 298 MP aspirants
Kampala- The Democratic Party (DP) has announced receiving applications for 298 MP aspirants ready to be endorsed to contest in 2021 General Election.
Speaking to Daily Monitor yesterday, Mr Gerald Siranda, the DP secretary general, said the party will hold a vetting meeting this week with the aspirants.
“Nomination is next week and we want to go into next month when we have candidates, we dealt with them in categories and we finished the local council. We are now starting with MPs this week,” Mr Siranda said.
He added that those who are aspiring for the same position have to go for primaries.
“The communication from the secretariat will go to the constituency chairperson asking them to convene delegates meeting to conduct primaries.
The National Executive Committee will send a supervisor to preside over the processes and will later produce a report on how they went,” he said.
Mr Siranda said the process of application ended on September 18 when they went to Gulu City for the delegates conference.
70 unopposed
“Out of 298 aspirants, 70 are unopposed and after endorsing all of them, we shall write to the Electoral Commission informing them about the persons we have endorsed,” he said.
This month, the EC announced dates for nomination of presidency, parliamentary and local council elections.
Local government candidates started their nomination process on September 21 to October 1 while MPs will be nominated from October 12 to October 13 followed by presidential contenders (November 2 and November 3).
During the same briefing, the party unveiled a campaign dubbed come back home (komawo eka) calling upon members who left the party to return.
“It was a painful moment to see sons and daughters of DP being mistreated in a foreign land, and we, therefore, insist that they should come back home,” the new party spokesperson, Mr Okoler Opio, said.
Last month, 11 DP legislators joined the National Unity Platform party led by the Kyadondo East MP, Mr Robert Kaygulanyi Sentamu, aka Bobi wine .