EC Sets January 14th 2021 as the Date for Presidential Elections

The EC announced that the upcoming 2021 presidential elections will be held on 14th January 2021.

The Electoral Commission (EC) Wednesday announced that the upcoming 2021 presidential elections will be held on 14th January 2021.

According to Justice Simon Byabakama the Commission’s chairperson, all the duly nominated presidential candidates are free to start campaigns from November 9, 2020, until January 12, 2021.

“The Electoral Commission urges all nominated candidates, their agents, supporters and the general public to carefully observe the guidelines that have been issued by the Electoral Commission for this campaign period,” part of Byabakama’s statement read.

The EC boss, however, commented on violent scenes witnessed on the second day of the presidential nominations. Byabakama said that they are going to take a clear look to determine what transpired before they can accord any blame.

He said that the commission is determined to hold free and fair elections and to achieve this, there must be peace in the country.

“We are going to sit with security. We want to find out what exactly happened and inquire into it. If we don’t inquire into these things, we might get something worse,” he said.

“What kind of country are we working towards? We must have peace to have a free, fair and credible election.”

Meanwhile, this comes at a time when the NUP party presidential flag bearer, Robert Kyagulanyi following Tuesday’s manhandling from the police has since rejected any form of security that was provided to him by the EC at his nomination day.

While responding to these reports, Byabakama said that he has not yet received any information from Kyagulanyi regarding the face-off with the police.

“I have not got a report from him (Kyagulanyi) about their role in the fracas. I first want to listen to both sides including the security details to get medicine to prevent further occurrence of such acts,” Byabakama said.

“If we find out security was in the wrong, we will ask the law to take its course. We don’t know the exact cause.”

However, he called on all the presidential candidates to remind their supporters that COVID-19 is still existing and a serious threat to life. Byabakama said that the virus is still fast spreading around the country. 

“I want to warn some of the presidential candidates that Covid-19 is in our amidst. Don’t mislead Ugandans and try to reduce Covid-19 to a non-existent threat. As candidates come to you seeking your support, be mindful of the virus and that you can only be useful to your candidate if you are healthy and normal.”