Top Uganda’s presidential contenders hold their final rallies Tuesday in the capaital.
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni on the last day of campaigning began by launching Kayoola, the first African solar-powered bus, an innovation by the government- owned Kiira Motors Corporation.
The veteran leader, who is seeking to extend his three-decade stay in power, said such innovations “expose people who say Uganda's education has been watered down”.
He also took at dig at his challengers saying they should have been invited “to see this for themselves”.
Like his main opponents Dr Kizza Besigye of the Forum for Democratic Change and Independent candidate Amama Mbabazi, who are also holding their last campaigns in the capital, the president thereafter headed to Kololo Independence Grounds in the Central Division of Kampala City arriving there by a helicopter.
Museveni has led Uganda for 30 years and is seeking a new five-year mandate.
His main rival Besigye is closing his campaigns with a rally at Nakivubo stadium in downtown Kampala, while former prime minister and ruling party stalwart Mbabazi, who fell out with the president in 2014, ends his vote-hunting drive at Makerere University on Tuesday evening.
Why Kampala?
Throughout the campaign period, the candidates have been building momentum and working to capture the support of urban voters who pollsters in the country describe as largely middle class, but who usually do not turn up to vote.
Yet, in terms of voter numbers, Kampala City has the country’s highest population of registered voters, according to the 2014 census results, at 1.18 million, followed by Wakiso District at 749,476.
However, many residents and voters of Wakiso are also largely middle class, but working in Kampala, hence the candidates’ desire to reach these voters in their places of work.
Vote hunting ends Tuesday evening.
According to Uganda’s electoral laws, election’s eve is not designated as a day for campaigning in order to ease tensions that build up during the campaign period and also enable the presidential candidates and voters to travel upcountry to cast their votes.