John Katumba to return to big towns in final campaign lap

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | With less than a month left to the January polls, independent candidate John Katumba has amended his campaign schedule to enable him to return to big cities and towns for the final lap.

Some of the cities and towns where the youngest candidate in the race intends to return include; Gulu, Masaka, Mbale, Mbarara, Fort Portal, Soroti and Kampala metropolitan area.

According to the candidate’s campaign team, the decision was informed during their campaign review meetings where they observed that during the first round of their campaign trail, they had not spent enough time in the said areas.

Marvin Konde, a campaign team member notes that the said areas have big voting blocks according to the analysis of the electoral data at their disposal. “Besides, these are areas where we can collect more votes and thus the need to ensure that the electorate in those areas fully understand our agenda,” says Konde.

Konde also adds that in the first lap, they had spent limited time in the said towns and cities as they were rushing to reach more districts. “At times we could spend less than two hours in some of these districts. We want to get back and spend more time,” he adds.

Paul Bukenya, the acting spokesperson of the Electoral Commission says that whereas the presidential candidate is free to campaign anywhere in Uganda, there is a need for them to harmonize their rescheduled program so that they don’t collide with their counterparts who might have planned to visit the same areas.

“There are no restrictions on presidential candidates from returning to the districts or areas they have been to. They are free to campaign anywhere. However, they might need to share their program to avoid colliding with another candidate who might have expressed interest in being in a given area on the same day,” says Bukenya.

According to the rescheduled program, Katumba intends to start from the Soroti, Kumi, and Mbale districts today and Saturday.

Katumba has become one of the celebrated presidential candidates for his free spirit approach, trending with ‘Katumba Oyee’ slogan on different social media platforms. The presidential candidate whose electoral symbol is a table is one of ten who seek to unseat the incumbent Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.

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