Presidential aspirants for the forthcoming 2016 elections can now rub their hands in earnest, after the Electoral Commission declared it was ready to issue nomination forms.
Joseph Biribonwa, the EC acting chairperson said the electoral body would start issuing the form on Monday, August 17.
He said the aspirants can utilize the remaining days of August and the whole September to solicit for the 100 nomination signatures from two thirds of the districts in Uganda, a prerequisite for presidential candidature under the Presidential Elections Act (PEA).
In a related development, the EC has set October 5 and 6as the days for the nomination of presidential candidates, who are all supposed to pay a non-refundable fee of eight million shillings and then return the filled nomination forms by September 21.
So far it is only one candidate, President Yoweri Museveni who has been endorsed by his party, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) as the flag bearer.
Other potential contenders include the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) president Major General Gregory Mugisha Muntu and three-time former candidate Colonel (rtd) Dr Warren Kizza Besigye, Democratic Party’s president Norbert Mao and former Prime Minister and NRM Secretary General John Patrick Amama Mbabazi, who has declared he is running as an Independent candidate.
Meanwhile, any of the four opposition candidates: Gen Muntu, Col Besigye, Mao or Mbabazi could become flag bearer under The Democratic Alliance (TDA), a loose coalition of political groupings and individuals who want to wrest power from the NRM.
