Muntu:"With or without covid19,Ugandans should not expect free and fair elections"

The national coordinator of Alliance for National Transformation (ANT), Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu, has said that even if the country was not affected by Covid-19 pandemic,the opposition shouldn't have expected a free and fair elections in 2021 general elections.

His comments come after numerous complaints from different politicians who expressed their disappointments on the recently announced electoral roadmap which banned the holding of public rallies among others.

Subsequently, candidates were instructed to use the media such as radio,television stations among others to carry out their campaigns in a bid to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

However, political actors think this method will not deliver free and fair elections because it will be in the favour of the incumbent.

But Muntu said Ugandans should never expect free and fair elections in the country with or without Covid-19 noting that this country has never held any credible elections.

He made the remarks while appearing on NBS TV's Frontline on Thursday night.

"It would be naive of us to expect a levelled ground. But we shall prepare ourselves psychologically and organise to ensure that we go in and overwhelm them,"he said.

He noted that it was paramount for the electoral commission to first consult the stakeholders before coming up with the roadmap because they are not operating in space.

"Political parties need to have meetings to prepare. The NRM itself is going to have a delegates conference. I don't know how they will handle it. We also have an upcoming delegates conference in ANT coming up. The EC should clarify on that. How on earth will we have candidates if we can't have primaries in the parties? We need to engage in a mature conversation to avoid a crisis,"he said.

He questioned how political parties will come up with candidates if primaries are not conducted which is so challenging at this moment.

He said there is need for a serious and mature conversation in order to avoid a crisis ahead of 2021 elections so that the the country can hold credible elections.

"They claim they determined the roadmap after engaging the experts from the Ministry of Health. We also have to find out from them and scientists out of the country to establish whether rallies will be dangerous for our people. We need to engage in real conversations to establish if the threat of death is real,"he said.

He noted that Ugandans should not look at the current situation and think that things will be impossible and stay at home, change will not happen in that way.

"No matter the complications, there is always a solution. You only have to look at the opportunities. We in ANT will always give the population hope. We know the majority want change. So many things are in favour of change, and all we have to do is look at the silver-lining. We have got to walk people out of apathy and hopelessness,"he noted.