DP to reprimand party leaders for supporting Kyagulanyi

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Democratic Party has threatened to reprimand party leaders and supporters backing rival candidates against their presidential candidate and president general, Norbert Mao. This comes amidst sharp division in Uganda’s oldest political party over Mao’s candidature.

It follows a decision by some party members including seniors to support the National Unity Platform-NUP presidential candidate, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu against the DP president. The latest to abandon Mao is Fred Mukasa Mbidde, the DP National Vice President.

He openly declared his support for Kyagulanyi during the official launch for his bid for the Nyendo Mukungwe Masaka City division parliamentary seat. Mbidde, who seeks to unseat Matthias Mpuuga claimed that he held a meeting with Mao where they agreed to take parallel positions on the choice of the presidential candidate, adding that he had opted to go with Kyagulangyi, the ‘new kid on the block’.

He told his excited electorate that he decided to support Kyagulanyi after observing that he is the most popular and better-placed candidate to end the National Resistance Movement’s 35-year rule under Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. Now, DP has issued an official statement distancing itself from Mbidde’s utterances describing them as untrue and that they must be treated with the utmost contempt.