KAMPALA – President Museveni and the Electoral Commission (EC) have resolved to stick to the January/February date for the 2021 General Election, PML Daily has learnt.
While the EC recently admitted that their earlier electoral schedule was disputed by Covid-19 pandemic, promising to release another one, this website has learnt that a meeting between President Museveni and a team from Electoral Commission held at State House Entebbe on Friday resolved to continue with the current programme with necessary adjustments.
One of the main adjustments, sources revealed, was that should the threat of Covid-19 remain, campaigns will most likely be held scientifically.
There was a general agreement in the meeting all presidential, parliamentary, mayoral and local council candidates will be required to campaign using the new digital tool Zoom or via radio and television.
This website understands that the Electoral Commission (EC) will announce the revised roadmap for the 2021 general elections this Tuesday in Kampala.
EC spokesperson Jotham Taremwa confirmed the plan. “We’ve invited our stakeholders to attend this important function,” he said.
Sources said it was one of the decisions that informed the plan to procure radios and television sets to enable Ugandans follow the campaigns. On Monday, Daily Monitor newspaper reported that government will set aside Shs380 bilion to buy at least 10 million radios for distribution across the country specifically to people with radio access needs. The government also will buy over 137,000 TV sets which will go to villages, with two television sets allocated to each of the 68,773 villages.
The money for television sets however will be tied to that of the ministry of education, since the TV sets were already in the pipeline for distance learning.
Masks will also continue to be distributed to everyone in the country, hence on the polling day, Standard Operating Procedures will be followed including the compulsory wearing of masks.
Early last month, Museveni has said it would be wrong to hold a presidential election due early next year if the coronavirus persists, signaling a possible postponement.
“To have elections when the virus is still there… It will be madness,” the 75-year-old Museveni said in an interview with the local NBS Television.
