At least 800 police officers have been deployed in Kyadondo East to man Thursday’s heated by-election.

These officers will man 72,818 registered voters at 94 polling stations in the nine parishes.

Kampala Metropolitan Police Commander Frank Mwesigwa told reporters after a planning meeting at Kasangati police Station that the force was on top of the security situation.

“The security is calm, as you can see. We are finalizing our deployment plan,” Mwesigwa said.

He added that security had been beefed up in the wake of reports that “some people are mobilising goons to destabilize the constituency”.

The ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party said Wednesday that the opposition is planning to cause chaos in Thursday’s by-election in Kyadondo East.

The by-election is a hot-contest among three candidates – NRM’s William Sebalu Sitenda, independent candidate singer Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu (Bobi Wine) and Forum for Democratic Change (FDC)’s Apollo Kantinti – of the five candidates in the race.