A Brief Twitter Guide to Uganda's Elections This Month
A screenshot of Uganda's main presidential candidates. Public Domain and Creative Commons photos from U.S. State Department, Flicker user Dispatch Uganda and U.S. Department of Defense.
Uganda goes to the polls on Thursday, February 18, to elect a president amid fears of election-related violence. President Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power since 1986, is seeking a fifth term. (There are no presidential term limits in Uganda.) The main opposition candidates are Dr. Kizza Besigye from the Forum for Democratic Change, who is running against Museveni for the fourth time, and Amama Mbabazi, an independent candidate from the GoForward advocacy group. Both men are Museveni's previous allies, before he dismissed them (reportedly for harboring presidential ambitions).
Other candidates are Abed Bwanika, Benon Biraaro, Venansius Baryamureeba, Joseph Mabirizi, and the only woman running for president, Maureen Kyalya.
Ugandans will also vote in parliamentary and local elections on the same day.
Below is a brief Twitter guide for updates, news, analysis, and reports related to Uganda's elections this month:
Hashtags
Key hashtags to follow are #UgandaDecides, #IChoosePeaceUG, #GoForward2016, #WesigeBesigye, #UGDebate16, #SteadyProgress, and #IPledgePeaceUG, which was launched by the Young African Leadership Initiative Network (YALI) with support from the U.S. Embassy in Uganda.
Twitter users
- Solomon Serwanjj, Uganda investigative reporter
- TMS Ruge, Co-founder of HiveColab, an innovation hub and startup incubator in Kampala, Uganda
- Rosebell Kagumire, Ugandan blogger and digital strategist
- Qatahar Raymond, Ugandan investigative reporter
- Daniel Kalinaki, Africa Editor at Nation Media Group
- Charles Onyango-Obbo, Editor Mail and Guardian Africa
- Angelo Izama, Ugandan analyst and blogger
- Prudence Nyamishana, Ugandan communications specialist and Global Voices Author
- Maurice Mugisha, head of news NTV Uganda
- Evelyn Namara, Ugandan social entrepreneur
- Andrew Mwenda, Ugandan journalist and political commentator
- Nduhukire, political reporter and anchor at NTV Uganda
- Alan Kasujja, BBC presenter in Uganda
- Catherine Byaruhanga, a Ugandan multi-media journalist
- ACME Uganda, The African Centre for Media Excellence (ACME)
- The Women's Situation Room Uganda (WSRU), a platform for early warning and a rapid response mechanism against election related violence and conflict in Uganda
News media
Presidential candidates
- Kizza Besigye, candidate for Forum for Democratic Change
- Maureen Kyalya, independent candidate
- Abed Bwanika, candidate for People's Development Party
- Amama Mbabazi, independent candidate under GoForward movement
- Yoweri Museveni, candidate for the ruling National Resistance Movement
- Venansius Baryamureeba, independent candidate
- Joseph Mabirizi, independent candidate
Uganda's Electoral Commission
- ECUganda, official Twitter account of the electoral commission
- Jotham Taremwa, Spokesperson of Uganda Electoral Commission
