By Mulengera ReportersOn grounds that some of the people whose signatures and NIN numbers she used to support her nomination weren’t consulted and therefore didn’t consent to the same, Merry Rebecca Abedichan (the young lady NUP had fronted to run against Minister Phiona Nyamutoro for the position of Nebbi Woman MP) has had her candidature invalidated, nullified and cancelled by the Electoral Commission.That is how singer Eddie Kenzo’s sweet heart Phiona Nyamutoro has ended up becoming unopposed. She has been the National Female Youth MP and will now assume the office of Nebbi Woman MP upon being sworn in and inaugurated next May.Available intelligence information now indicates that this habit or practice of obtaining and using people’s NINs to back up one’s candidature nomination, without the same being consented to by the National ID owner, is common and widespread. It’s an aspect many candidates have always not been paying adequate scrutiny and attention too.Many facilitate and task campaign agents, trusted supporters and advisors to obtain and assemble signatures to support their nomination from registered voters in different parts of the constituency or electoral area. It’s important that one’s signatures show inclusiveness by being sourced from different cells, villages, wards, parishes and Sub Counties or divisions making up that given district, constituency or electoral area.But because of widespread financial hardships in the country, the assigned agents, in especially urban constituencies, prefer the cost-saving approach so that they make the njawulo (difference) and be able to save and pocket some of the money.They end up accessing and recording down people’s NINs which they end up making use of (adding them on the nominators’ list) without the ID owner’s express permission or consent. They always see such exercise as an opportunity to make extra buck off their always ‘stingy’ political principal who could have deployed and assigned them to secure those NINs and the accompanying signatures.Whereas this has been common practice for years and perpetrators have always gotten away with it, such practice is criminal and attracts forgery-related sanctions under the laws of Uganda. But for purposes of elections and one being nominated to be a candidate in national elections, that offence of using one’s NIN without ID owner’s consent and knowledge vitiates one’s candidature and can be ground for cancellation and disqualification.The idea is that he who chooses to nominate and back someone’s candidature has to do so consciously, which simply means being aware of their NIN being used. And the one nominating signifies their consent, that they are willingly backing one’s candidature, by appending their signature. And the absence of that consent (the moment it turns out the NIN was used filthily and that the nominator’s signature was forged) simply collapses anyone’s candidature, that might have resulted from such forgery and fraudulent conduct.The intelligence has been able to establish that such njawulo-seeking campaign agents leverage a network of money lenders and SACCOs operations to access people’s ID photocopies, names, NINs and signatures which they proceed to use for purposes of facilitating their political principal’s nomination.“What one does is to photocopy that list of borrowers from a friendly money lender or SACCO leader, which they proceed to make use of while saving on would-be expenditure to move around soliciting for genuine signatures and NINs from would-be nominators. They sit down and copy down those particulars while filling the same into the nomination forms which are then delivered to their respective political principals as mission accomplished. These lists are then put together to be attached on one’s nomination file which gets submitted to the EC. Guys at Nasser Road are used to try and replicate or forge the signature. The borrower will have appended his signature on the money lender’s form, which the Nasser Road guys are very good at replicating onto the EC nomination forms,” explained one of the state operatives who have been investigating this widespread fraud. NRM UPSTAGES NUP:On establishing the extent to which such fraudulent conduct is widespread in especially the urbane Kampala Metropolitan Area (Kampala, Wakiso & Mukono) electoral areas, people in candidate Museveni’s camp became interested. They saw an opportunity to enforce the law (against forgery and fraudulent conduct) while crippling their leading political opponent (NUP).A committee, coordinated by a Muslim lady who has worked for the President for decades was put in place. They were tasked to handle strictly the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area. Working with friendly insiders at EC, this well facilitated committee members have been scrutinizing each and every candidate NUP fronted for each and every elective position (councillors, mayors, LC5 Chairpersons and MPs) in the metropolitan area.At their secretariat based in a secretive location on top of one of Kampala’s most secure hills, members of this committee have been perusing nomination files for each of the NUP-fielded candidate. They have been privately reaching out making calls and even holding physical meetings with most of the nominators whose names appear on the nomination lists.It turns out, many such nominators have denied ever signing up to support nomination of many NUP candidates. In many cases, people’s ID particulars and details like NINs and signatures were fraudulently accessed and copied from money lenders’ or SACCO leaders’ records. Many such national ID owners have sworn affidavits disowning NUP candidates, whose nomination they say they never endorsed. Many of these nominators are ordinary people who aren’t even politically that active.And armed with such affidavits, the NRM camp has concluded it’s possible to have many NUP candidates for especially Lord and other metropolitan area councillor positions denominated. Proxy actors have already been facilitated to petition the EC challenging nomination of such targeted NUP councillor candidates. That way, the NRM camp is certain to have local councils, Kampala city division councils and a City Hall (for KCCA’s case) which numerically are dominated by diehard Musevenists or opposition-leaning independents who will be incited to keep antagonizing Kavule.“It’s going to look like the way Parliament is or even more. You are going to end up with a Council which is dominated by NRM councillors or independents as was the case at KCCA in 2011 when Erias Lukwago first became Lord Mayor with a council dominated by NRM Lord Councillors,” says a well briefed source. “We don’t care even if the NRM flag bearers don’t win that much because we know the hostilities Kampala metropolitan area voters have towards NRM. Let it be opposition independents who won’t be NUP-sponsored candidates. That way, we deny Kavule of bragging rights that it’s us dominating the council at City Hall or in city divisions.”Musevenists are also optimistic that it’s much easier to cut deals with individual opposition councillors once they are independents as opposed to belonging to NUP or any other formidably established opposition party. The independents can easily be lured with groceries to sign MoUs and turn the thing into an NRM-dominated council.“These are people’s representatives which assures us [government of the day] of legitimacy even when there isn’t much real power that can be wielded at that level in those councils. We need control of those councils to overcome legitimacy problems and isolate the hardline opposition while continuing to make it hard for anyone to organize successful anti-Museveni protests in the metropolitan area. It’s important to manage the post-2026 politics that way because Kampala matters a lot. Riots in the metropolitan area attract media publicity and incite chaos in other Ugandan cities and towns.”Uncomfortable being quoted, the same source asserted that investigations are complete and a good number of especially NUP nominated councillors are going to be denominated in the coming days and weeks because their respective candidatures benefited from the Merry Rebecca Abedichan-like nomination signatures fraud, which has resulted into Nyamutoro taking the Nebbi Woman MP Seat unopposed.In some cases, nominators can be gaslighted/manipulated or even sweetened through money/job offers to turn hostile by swearing affidavits claiming they never consented to being candidate so & so’s nominator. Yet the EC will have no problem relying on their claim to cancel one’s candidature.It’s also true that not many NUP poverty-stricken candidates can afford the money and other resources required to successfully put up a fight in court; challenging disqualification by EC. Not many are prepared for such a very exhaustive exercise. It has also emerged that in some cases, NUP councillor-level candidates personally participated in decisions to use people’s NINs without consent simply because they were broke and didn’t have money to afford doing better than just obtaining people’s National ID details from friendly money lenders and SACCO leaders. In some cases, people want something before signing for you.Many of such NUP candidates even struggled to raise basic things such as nomination fees and campaign posters yet Kavule officially is broke and wasn’t in position to help much. Consequently, many of them can’t even afford a lawyer to fight off such NRM-engineered petitions asking the EC to denominate them.With the likes of George Musisi standing for MP Seats in Kira and Benjamin Katana being busy accompanying Bobi on the campaign trail, the party’s only available fulltime lawyer is Jonathan Erotu (a young man who until recently was a trainee at Lukwago’s law firm). Yet many of the NUP councillor-level candidates can’t access appropriate legal services to counter such mischief from the NRM camp.All said and done, the Nyamutoro decision has given the pro-Museveni mischief plotters a template, a precedence and a new standard to leverage to effect mass denomination of many candidates Kavule fronted for especially councillor level positions.In Wakiso district alone, at least some two NUP MP candidates are being targeted for Merry Rebecca Abedichan-like disqualification. One is for want of academic qualifications and another over nomination nomination-signature forgeries.“We know our flag bearers can’t easily win in Wakiso but depriving Kavule of two MP positions is good too because being two MPs less, deprives them of Shs200m annually under the IPOD arrangement,” says one of the Museveni campaign strategists we spoke to for this article. He made it clear they don’t care who wins for as long as that person isn’t a party flag bearer.From 2026 onwards, denial of IPOD funds is one of the many strategies the regime intends to use to exhaust Robert Kyagulanyi and make him lose appetite for continuing to be leader of the anti-Museveni struggle. Diminishing the number of NUP councillors in the metropolitan area local government councils is being considered as an opportunity to diminish pomp, media publicity and community visibility for Kavule-based NUP throughout the entire metropolitan area from 2026 onwards. 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