EC urged to suspend physical campaigns for 2021 elections

Crispin Kaheru, an independent elections expert, has called upon the Electoral Commission (EC) to suspend physical campaigns for the 2021 elections with immediate effect until such a point when the body regains full control of the electoral environment. 

"Life is more important than elections! Stakeholders including politicians, their supporters, security agencies, and non-state actors should remain alive to the reality that this is an election and not a war," he said.

Kaheru, the former coordinator of the Citizens' Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda, said each stakeholder must act responsibly. 

"An electoral process that is not peaceful may ultimately be difficult to prove as credible. The incidents of violence at hand in different parts of the country points to one thing: that as a country we have failed the test of a ‘hybrid election' amidst the COVID-19 pandemic," he said.

He was reacting to the arrest of the National Unity Platform presidential candidate, Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine, at his campaign venue in Luuka district following a scuffle between his supporters and the Police.

The Police accused Kyagulanyi of having more than 200 supporters recommended by the EC to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

His arrest sparked riots in various parts of the country.