8 presidential aspirants return forms as deadline looms

Eight of 86 presidential aspirants have submitted the required signatures to the Electoral Commission (EC) as the deadline ends today. 
The Presidential Elections Act requires aspiring candidates to collect 100 signatures from two-thirds of the total number of districts in the country as a precondition for their nomination.

It is not clear whether the remaining 82 presidential aspirants will return the forms before the deadline.
Some of the notable Opposition aspirants, who had not returned forms yesterday, include Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine (National Unity Platform), Democratic Party (DP)’s Nobert Mao, Forum for Democratic Change (FDC)’s Patrick Oboi Amuriat, and Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu of the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) party . 
DP leaders told a news conference this week that they had collected two million signatures. 

NUP situation
NUP on the other hand accused police of impounding Bobi Wine’s seven million signatures during Wednesday’s raid at their party headquarters in Kampala.
NUP spokesperson Joel Ssenyonyi yesterday said the party had started collecting signatures afresh, adding that they had asked for more time. 

Mr Amuriat said they would have the full list of signatures before the week ends .
In an interview with Daily Monitor yesterday, the acting spokesperson of the EC, Mr Paul Bukenya, said the deadline for submission of the signatures is October 16 [today] .

Those that have submitted
He said as of yesterday, only President Museveni (National Resistance Movement, Gen Elly Tumukunde (Independent); Mr Charles Bbale (Ecological Party of Uganda) and Ms Elizabeth Lugudde, who is an Independent candidate, had  submitted their forms.

 Others are Mr Willy  Mayambala, Simon Ebintu, Robert Mutono and Fred Mwesigye, all Independent candidates.  
He said all the signatures are supposed to be verified by the EC before a candidate is cleared for nomination.
“We are doing the verification of supporter forms, which have been handed in already by the four candidates. We crosscheck the names, signatures and all the details concerning supporters that were submitted by the three candidates to ensure that they match with the voter register we have,” Mr Bukenya said. He added: “If we note issues, especially the mismatch, we bring them to their attention.” 

He said the EC will issue a clearance certificate to successful aspirants.
Mr Bukenya said the candidates will now be required to prepare their academic documents, pay the nomination fee and book the dates and time they want to be nominated by the commission. He said presidential candidates will be nominated on November 2 and 3. Each candidate is expected to pay Shs20m to the electoral body.