National Unity Platform  president, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, popularly known as Bobi Wine, has decried what he describes as a coordinated effort by state operatives and Electoral Commission officials to block NUP candidates from participating in youth elections across the country.

Kyagulanyi accuses RDCs and DISOs, GISOs, and Electoral Commission personnel of frustrating the nomination of NUP candidates which he says has happened in over 80% of the districts.

“All these days, we’ve been getting complaints from every corner of Uganda. Even in all divisions of Kampala, they have blocked most NUP candidates from nominating, while they begged or bought some young people to run under NRM and facilitated them to nominate successfully,” Kyagulanyi said.

He further alleged that in some areas, individuals believed to be hired goons were deployed to violently disrupt the nomination process, beating up NUP supporters and chasing them away from nomination venues.

“Well, we have formally complained about this matter, not because we expect any positive results, but because we always want to be on record. Thats why the 2026 election must be a protest vote. We must reject and defeat this nonsense once and for all,” Kyagulanyi added.

His remarks follow a chaotic incident on Tuesday at the NUP headquarters in Kavule, Kampala, where police reportedly fired bullets in the air in an attempt to arrest one of the party’s youth candidates who had come to collect nomination forms.

The incident left several party supporters and party electoral officials in panic and some injured.

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