Parties gear up for special interest group elections

Different political parties have embarked on campaigns to elect representatives for different special interest groups at village level across the country.
According to the revised national electoral roadmap, nomination of candidates for committees of village special interest groups comprising the elderly, persons with disabilities and youth will be conducted from July 29 to August 5 and elections will take place on August 11, 2020.
Mr Jotham Taremwa, the Electoral Commission spokesperson, yesterday told Daily Monitor that the commission is maintaining the set dates.
“We are maintaining this roadmap and nothing has changed, so the parties must work within the timeline to ensure that they are represented,” he said.
Yesterday, the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party said it will kick off the internal electoral process on Monday with issuing out of forms to those interested.

“I want to call upon all the stakeholders who want represent the PWDs, the youths and the older persons to immediately start organising themselves. Next week they will pick the forms, we shall send the forms to the countryside; they will fill them and the elections will go on,” Dr Tanga Odoi, the NRM electoral commission chairperson, said.
Mr Patrick Amuriat, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party president, said their chapters across the country are identifying the aspirants who are interested in contesting for the electoral positions on the party ticket.

FDC preparations
“Our elections for these posts have always been in electoral colleges, which do not call for big gatherings, and I am very sure that we shall be having candidates,” Mr Amuriat said.
For the Democratic Party, the vice president, Mr Mukasa Mbidde, said they are currently conducting the primaries at the district offices.

“We are merging [special interest groups polls] with urgent primary elections that are being conducted. Districts are mandated to perform all these activities on behalf of the national executive committee. District executive committees are conducting the primaries within the set SOPs [standard operating procedures],” Mr Mbidde said.
We were unable to reach the Alliance for National Transformation, the Uganda Peoples’ Congress, Justice Forum and other political parties for their comments in regard to their preparations.