2026 polls: NUP adjusts vetting programme for aspiring MPs

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The National Unity Platform (NUP) party has adjusted the vetting program for its aspiring MPs in the 2026 general elections.

“We have adjusted the vetting program for our prospective candidates for Member of Parliament from the scheduled date of August 20th to September 15th, and the exercise shall run for seven consecutive days till 22nd September,” the party said in a statement on Friday (August 15).

The election management committee started vetting at least 3,622 aspirants for the party flag across various leadership positions on July 28, 2025, with those for local council 3 and 5 from Lubaga North, Kawempe South and Nakawa West.

The exercise has been taking place at the NUP headquarters in Makerere-Kavule, Kampala.

However, the main opposition party is said to be facing a dilemma over which parliamentary and local council aspirants to select in the central region for the next year’s general election.

Its maiden vetting exercise of 2020 saw over seven seasoned opposition politicians overlooked as flag bearers for the 2021 parliamentary elections in Kampala.

They included Michael Mabikke, the two-time former Makindye East MP, Samuel Lubega Mukaaku, the former Presidential candidate, Kenneth Kakande, former DP spokesperson and Sulaiman Kidandala, the former Kampala deputy Lord Mayor.

Others were Moses Kasibante, the then Rubaga North MP, and his Makindye-Ssabagabo Municipality counterpart, Emmanuel Ssempela Kigozi.

All of them, save for Kasibante, were among DP bloc members who did all it takes to depict Kyagulanyi as the de facto Opposition leader in anticipation of his patronage.

So, when they officially crossed over to NUP in August 2020, a month after its formation, they expected automatic party endorsement because of promoting Kyagulanyi and the positions, academic qualifications and political experience they had.

However, the party’s election management team instead endorsed fresh-faced youth, including Joel Ssenyonyi, a former TV news anchor, who was then aged 32, and Derrick Nyeko, the then youth councillor for Makindye Urban Division, aged 28.

Ssenyonyi beat Kakande to the newly created Nakawa West constituency flag, while Nyeko trounced Mabikke and about five other aspirants to become NUP flag-bearer for Makindye East.

Nyeko had just defected from the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM).

That selection process saw the likes of Kakande cry foul, questioning the rationale of the endorsement procedure. They went on to unsuccessfully contest as NUP leaning independent candidates in the 2021 election.

Last week, the National Electoral Commission announced new dates for the nomination of local government and parliamentary candidates for next year's general election.

Candidates for district/city will be nominated between September 8 to September 10, 2025, while for parliament on October 15 and October 16, 2025, at the office of the respective district/city returning officer.

However, the nomination dates for presidential candidates were not adjusted: September 23-24 this year.