NUP flag is not for sale – Kyagulanyi

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, the President of the National Unity Platform [NUP] has said that his party’s flag is not for sale.

Kyagulanyi said they have received reports that there are people within the ranks and file of NUP who are asking for money from aspirants for different political offices before they are nominated as NUP flag bearers.

Recently, music promoter Andrew Bajjo who dumped NUP and embraced the ruling National Resistance Movement said that he had been asked for 15 million Shillings to be endorsed as the party candidate for the position of Nakawa division chairman.

Similar complaints were heard in Lubaga South where one Aloysius Mukasa is said to be favored to be the party’s flag bearer in the parliamentary race of that area. Mukasa who is said to be one of the financiers of NUP activities is competing for the party ticket with Samuel Lubega Mukaaku who was recently sacked as the deputy chairperson of NUP’s election management committee.

But Kyagulanyi has said that the same people fighting president Yoweri Museveni and his government for corruption cannot be the same practicing it by selling the party flag. Kyagulanyi was speaking to journalists at the NUP party headquarters in Kamwokya, Kampala.

Speaking at the same function, Joel Ssenyonyi, the spokesperson of the National Unity Platform said the party has not yet endorsed official candidates because their electoral body is still carrying out consultations on the best candidate for various electoral areas.

Ssenyonyi said that as soon as the process is complete, they will release a list to the country showing their candidates for different areas. He called upon all those people who have been asked to pay in order to get the ticket to report such people so that stern action is taken against them.

Meanwhile, Kyagulanyi said that his party welcomes all dissatisfied members of the NRM who were defeated in last week’s primart elections. Kyagulanyi said that NUP is open to receiving anybody from the NRM regardless of the reasons they are dissatisfied with their party.

“Many of us have been associated with the NRM over time but for different reasons, we have been breaking ties. After the rigging, the violence, and the indiscipline in their primaries, another lot is having another valid reason to leave the NRM. So you are welcome comrades,” Kyagulanyi said.

He was however quick to add that in the event that such people join NUP, they shouldn’t expect to be given special treatment. He said in his party, all the members enjoy equal rights regardless of their social status.

According to the Electoral Commission roadmap, candidates for the parliamentary elections will be nominated next month while presidential candidates will be nominated in November. Both the presidential and parliamentary elections are expected to be held in January 2021.

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URN