The Democratic Party has made a return to the presidential race since 2011, by fielding Norbert Mao for the 2021 presidential elections.
Unless tragedy strikes, Mao will be making his second appearance on the presidential ballot after his first unsuccessful bid in 2011.
Back then, a charismatic and energetic Mao came a distant third after Dr. Kizza Besigye who got over 2m votes and Yoweri Museveni who won with over 5.4m votes.
Mao garnered just 147,917 votes equivalent to 1.86% of the total votes cast.
Mao’s success at today’s nominations has taken many by surprise as he had not done much ado about it.
He actually addressed this skepticism by saying: “For those who had doubts about Norbert Mao being on the ballot paper, today is your answer,” Mao said shortly after nomination.
With just hours to the end of nominations, the Electoral Commission (EC), today wrote to Mao telling him to turn up for nomination after they had completed verifying his signatures.
“Electoral Commission has verified that the aspiring candidate has complied with section 10(13(b) and 10(3) of the presidential elections Act,” read the document.
Speaking to journalists just minutes to nomination, Mao noted that the delay was due to delayed party delegates’ conference that was hampered by COVID-19 citing that it was inappropriate for them to collect signatures before the party delegates’ conference.
He also attributed the delay to hopes of having a unified opposition candidate.
“Secondly, we had expectations that we could be able to unite and field joint candidates in all positions. That failed,” he said.
