With just three weeks to the next general elections, the National Unity Platform-NUP Candidate for Mawogola North parliamentary seat has withdrawn from the race.
Idi Ssemata, the NUP candidate, has announced his withdrawal from the parliamentary contest for Mawogola North constituency in Sembabule district, two days to President Yoweri Museveni’s scheduled campaign in the area.
Ssemata who was at the forefront of organising the National Unity Platform-NUP presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu alias Bobi Wine’s campaign rally in November, indicates he could not sustain campaigns for his constituency.
He drops out of the race under suspicious circumstances.
He says that he has taken a decision to withdraw from the race because he is incapable of sustaining the campaign in the area where free democratic participation is not respected.
“Besides financial constraints, the competition in this area is not fair, a clear indication that our supporters can hardly have the liberty to choose a leader of their choice through an election,” he says.
Ssemata was contesting for Mawogola North parliamentary seat with President Museveni’s younger brother Godfrey Aine Kaguta Sodo of the National Resistance Movement-NRM, Angela Kigonya of Democratic Party-DP, Moses Lyazi of People’s Front for Freedom-PFF and Jet Tumwebaze who is independent.
He now joins Isaac Tumusiime Museveni, who the NUP party had nominated as their flagbearer for Lwemiyaga County parliamentary seat, but failed to show up for nomination by the Electoral Commission.
Tumusiime instead showed up on the National Resistance Movement campaign rally in Ntuusi town council, where he also announced his defection from the NUP.
He is currently campaigning for NRM’s Emmanuel Rwashande, who is competition for Lwemiyaga parliamentary seat.
Similarly, in 2021 the NUP Sembabule district Woman MP Candidate Zaituni Babikola also withdrew from the race, leaving the NRM flagbearer Mary Begumisa to emerge unopposed.
