Ugandan opposition leaders Dr Kizza Besigye and Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine have castigated after President Yoweri Museveni reconstituted the Electoral Commission (EC), filling it with his ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) cadres ahead of the 2026 presidential election.
While Museveni maintained EC Chairperson Simon Mugenyi Byabakama, his deputy Aisha Lubega and commissioner Stephen Tashobya, he brought new members on board.
These included former MPs Kasule Robert Sebunya (Nansana Municipality – NRM) and former Kioga County lawmaker Anthony Okello (also of the NRM).
Other members of the commission are: political science lecturer Dr Sallie Simba Kayunga and Pamela Etonu Okudi.
BOBI WINE SPEAKS ON MUSEVENI EC APPOINTMENTS
According to Bobi Wine, the leader of the main opposition National Unity Platform (NUP), most of the appointments favor Museveni and his NRM party.
The singer and politician argues that by maintaining Byabakama, the man who presided over the chaotic 2021 elections and one with a history of partisanship, at the helm, Museveni is exposing his disinterest in credible polls.
“Mr Byabakama presided over the sham 2021 presidential election in which he declared false results indicating dictator Museveni as the ‘winner’. He was also the lead prosecutor in the trumped-up rape case against Dr. Kizza Besigye who had sought to challenge Museveni in the 2006 election, and later the bogus PRA treason case,” stated Bobi Wine.
“He no longer wants to pretend. He has decided to appoint renowned NRM cadres to the Electoral Commission – a clear message to Ugandans that he has no intention of ever holding a free and fair election!”
The politician thinks the EC appointments are provocative to Ugandans interested in electoral democracy.
“Museveni shamelessly sees nothing wrong with putting such people in charge of a commission that should be impartial, organising free and fair elections! If this is not enough provocation to the people of Uganda, I don’t know what ever will be!” added Bobi Wine.
“It is time for all Ugandans and friends of Uganda to see that we are entirely on our own, and rise to the occasion so that we redeem our nation from this absolute mess!”
BESIGYE AGREES WITH BOBI WINE ON MUSEVENI EC APPOINTMENTS
Besigye, who challenged Museveni four times for the country’s top job but lost, agrees with Bobi Wine on EC appointments.
He says the EC is clearly Museveni’s ‘walking stick.’
“Yes, the EC, like all State institutions is firmly a ‘walking stick’ of Mr Museveni! That’s why we must have our own roadmap to freedom! We go, we go,” Besigye wrote.
