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UGANDA: JAILED BESIGYE FINALLY NOMINATED AS POLICE HEAVILY DEPLOYS IN KAMPALA CITY December 15, 2005

Apunyu Bonny

(SomaliNet) Ugandans Wednesday 14th witnessed a start of nominations for presidential aspirants from various political parties to contest in next year’s presidential elections amid massive Police deployment in the city.

Armed Military Police in patrol trucks also criss-crossed the city, bolstering the hefty deployment to guard the two-day exercise against violence. “More than 1,000 policemen have been deployed and this is to assure the public that all is well,” Nyeko, Kampala Police chief, said

Uganda’s leading opposition leader Dr. Kiiza Besigye was the only presidential candidate who was duly nominated yesterday out of the nine who had been earmarked by the Electoral Commission. Besigye, who did not turn up because he remains on remand in Luzira Prisons, satisfied the EC.

The central chair, on which the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) leader would have sat, was left unoccupied. A campaign poster of a smiling Besigye and an FDC cap were pinned on the chair. 4,600 registered voters from all the 76 districts of Uganda signed Besigye’s nomination papers. Party officials were ecstatic about Besigye’s nomination.

Among those who came to woo Besigye’s nomination included his wife Winnie Byanyima, FDC deputy president Sam Njuba, Secretary General Alice Alaso, Organizing Secretary Mugisha Muntu, party envoy Beti Kamya and spokesman Wafula Oguttu, among others

The chairman of the Electoral Commission Badru Kiggundu declared the FDC leader, Dr. Kiiza Besigye a nominated presidential candidate for the 2006 presidential elections at 12:15p.m, attracting applause from the 20 FDC official