Kampala: Tuesday 14 July, 2020
The Alliance for National Transformation leadership held a meeting with the Electoral commission on 14th July 2020 in which they discussed a number of issues concerning the roadmap and the conditions for the Scientific elections.
ANT informed the EC that they intend to hold a delegate’s conference on 6th August 2020 in which over 600 delegates are expected. They said that it’s a constitutional provision both by the Party and National Constitution to have the delegates conference. They indicated that the conference would be organized in a manner that follows the COVID-19 Standards operational procedures.
ANT made the following proposals to Electoral Commission.
1. That the meetings should not be restricted on the basis of numbers but rather space. They argued that restricting meetings to 50 people would be unfair since some meetings can be organized in venues that can even accommodate 1000 people yet others can have 50 people when the space is not enough for them. ANT therefore proposed that meetings should have unlimited numbers as long as they meet standard operational procedures and have enough space to accommodate the numbers.
2. ANT also demanded that Electoral Commission gives clear explanation as to why rallies can’t be held. This was on the account that there are other places like “Kikuubo” where people are more congested than the rallies and no positive cases of COVID-19 have been reported emanating from those crowds. They therefore, demanded that EC considers having rallies in the 2021 elections since there is no clear scientific evidence showing that there cannot be rallies as long as they follow the SOPS.
3. ANT also raised concerns over the campaign period for Presidential candidates which is set at 90 days to traverse 135 districts which they said was unfair. They argued that a presidential candidate can not have less time than a Parliamentary Candidate. ANT proposed that the nomination for Presidential candidates be brought closer so that they can have enough time to campaign with intent to meet the principle of a candidate reaching at least every district for campaigns.