Presidential aspirant, Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine has said he collected 33,000 signatures from 109 districts of Uganda in two days, endorsing his bid having lost some signatures to security agencies in a mid-week raid on his offices.
On Wednesday, Kyagulanyi accused security operatives of confiscating his party documents with seven million signatures endorsing him for presidency during the raid in which police said it was meant to recover police and military stores.
The deadline for submission of signatures to the Electoral Commission was Saturday (October 17, 2020) but Bobi says he wrote asking for an extension of time.
“We worked hard for two days to get fresh signatures. We activated our structures countrywide and collected a fresh batch of signatures. Thankfully, there were a few districts whose signatures were still in the field by the time of the raid. Yesterday (Saturday), a team from our secretariat was able to submit 33,000 signatures from 109 districts of Uganda,” he said in a statement on his social media platforms.
The electoral commission will begin its nomination of presidential candidates on November 2 and every presidential nominee is required to submit 100 signatures from a minimum of 98 districts.
During the raid, Bobi Wine also accused the police and army of stealing some Shs23 million donated by citizens for the nomination of his National Unity Platform (NUP) parliamentary candidates.
However, police spokesman, Fred Enanga denied the accusation saying no money was taken from the offices.
Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) on September last year designated the red beret and tunic which have become Bobi Wine’s signature as official military clothing and warned that any civilian found in possession of such risks a punishment of up to five years in prison.
Bobi Wine under People Power Movement the, defied the directive and urged his supporters to keep wearing the party colors which has been the practice up to today.
After the raid on NUP offices and several locations in Kampala, 41 Bobi Wine supporters were charged at City Hall Court on Friday and remanded for allegedly wearing the red berets and holding unlawful gatherings.