The Democratic Party- presidential candidate Norbert Mao led a procession in Gulu City on Tuesday evening shortly after addressing his final campaign rally. No sooner had Mao addressed thousands of his supporters at Kaunda Grounds in Layibi-Bardege division than he led them through the streets of Gulu City as police watched helplessly.
Mao drove in a convoy of about 20 vehicles accompanied by Simon Opoka, the DP Deputy Spokesperson, Lyandro Komakech, the incumbent Gulu Municipality Member of Parliament who running for the Layibi-Bardege Division parliament seat and Gulu City DP Woman parliamentary candidate, Jolly Laker.
Mao, the other candidates and DP officials stood on top of their vehicles backed by a soundtrack and they waved to the crowds and chanted songs of victory in the general elections. Thousands of voters comprising women, men and youth ululated and shouted as they promised to vote Mao calling him their saviour.
Only a handful of the supporters and DP officials wore facemask and observed social distancing as demanded by the Ministry of Health and the Electoral Commission to contain the spread of coronavirus disease. The procession went through Juba road, Main Street, Market Street, Olya Road to Acholi Road bringing traffic flow and businesses to a standstill for several minutes whenever they passed. Earlier on at his rally, Mao dared police to disrupt him lest they risk causing chaos that the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party Presidential candidate, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni will regret, saying he enjoys massive support at home compared to anybody else.
Mao asked the people to vote for him and the DP candidates to bring change in the country and restore the presidential age limit in the constitution. He also promised to promote agriculture, land rights, service delivery and ensure equal opportunity and resource sharing in the country regardless of people’s religious beliefs and tribes.
In a separate interview with URN on Tuesday morning, Mao asked voters to turn up massively to cast their votes if they need change. He advised the voters to ignore the propaganda of vote-rigging but instead focus on protecting their votes.
Mao is vying for presidency alongside ten other candidates including among others the incumbent president, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of NRM, Robert Kyagulanyi of the National Unity Platform (NUP), Patrick Oboi Amuriat of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) and Mugisha Muntu of the Alliance for National Transition (ANT).
In 2011, Mao contested for Presidency and came third after garnering 147,917 votes of the total votes cast representing 1.86%. Kizza Besigye of the FDC was second with 2,064,963 votes while the incumbent Museveni won with 5,428,369 votes representing 68.38% of total votes cast. Uganda goes to polls on January Thursday 14th, 2021.
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