Besigye leaves Acholi happy to find landmines in Luwero

Observer's Edris Kiggundu reports about Dr. Kizza Besigye's reception in Acholi on his campaign and what it means for the opposition

No change, IPC candidate tells Acholi

Gulu, Luwero– The opposition alliance flag bearer ended his campaign tour of Acholi last week with an appeal to the people to vote for him, again, saying the country is united in its desire for change.

Dr Kizza Besigye also used the campaign to make one of the biggest political pronouncements that had little to do with the political dynamics of the sub-region. The FDC leader announced during a couple of rallies in Amuru and Nwoya districts that Erias Lukwago was the favoured opposition candidate for mayor of Kampala.

Besigye’s passionate plea for the Acholi vote came amid fears that the ruling NRM could dig into his stronghold – going by the last two elections – following restoration of peace here after 20 years of insurgency.


During the week the IPC leader spent in Acholi, he kept saying that the NRM adamantly championed the military option rather than a peaceful resolution of the conflict, thus inflicting severe damage on the populace.


He said Yoweri Museveni’s government accepted to talk peace with the LRA after coming under pressure from religious leaders and donors.

If the sub-region votes for the NRM, Besigye said, its fortunes shall not improve just like the other sub-regions that have consistently voted for Museveni but which continue to wallow in poverty.

“There is no reason why you should not vote for change like you have been doing. This time the whole country is behind us and we shall protect our vote,” Besigye said.

Besides trying to stem NRM’s growth here, Besigye also had to contend with the prospect that the opposition vote could be split by the two presidential candidates who hail from this sub-region— DP’s Norbert Mao and UPC’s Olara Otunnu.

As of last week, it appeared as if Mao and Otunnu had not yet made the needed political penetration to threaten Besigye’s hold onto Acholi. In districts like Nwoya, Lamwo, Amuru and Pader, DP and UPC do not have enough grassroots structures to counter the FDC.

Also, FDC has the highest number of candidates vying for political office at all levels in the districts of Acholi. The IPC flag bearer was careful not to criticise these two opposition candidates publicly, and instead devoted more time on pointing out the failures of the NRM.

Judging from the reception he got, Besigye remains the sub-region’s favourite candidate. Wherever he went, cheering crowds looked destined to keep behind their man.

However, it is doubtful he will repeat the 2006 feat when he scored 77% of the vote here. Simon Oyet, the Nwoya County MP, told The Observer last week that Besigye will win resoundingly in the sub-region because most people are still skeptical about Museveni, despite the peace.

“This talk of peace does not work here. Look at the people, they are still in misery. They have not benefitted from government’s resettlement programme,” Oyet said during a campaign stop in Nwoya.

Towards the end of the Acholi campaign, Besigye was joined by former Buganda Katikkiro, Joseph Mulwanyamuli Ssemwogerere, Kampala Central MP, Erias Lukwaga, Mukono North MP, Betty Nambooze and Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda, who is contesting for the Kyadondo East Parliamentary seat.

The four are all key members of Ssuubi 2011, a pro-Buganda pressure group allied to the IPC. Ssemwogerere told the people of Nwoya and Amuru that Buganda first placed its faith in Museveni after he restored the kingdom in 1993, adding that later the NRM leader turned against the Kabaka.

“That is why we are supporting Besigye because he is trustworthy and does not go back on his word,” he said in Pabbo sub-county, Amuru district.

Besigye also used the presence of the four individuals in Acholi to make a big political pronouncement that had little to do with the local politics here.

The FDC leader, while addressing a couple of rallies in Amuru and Nwoya districts, introduced Lukwago as “the Mayor of Kampala”. It is the first time Besigye has openly sided with one of the opposition candidates in the race that pits Lukwago against Michael Mabikke, leader of the Social Democrats Party (SDP).

The issue of Kampala mayoral candidates has split the IPC, with some leaders backing Mabikke while the mainly Ssuubi-leaning officials support Lukwago.

The IPC electoral affairs committee chaired by Rubaramira Ruranga announced Mabikke as the official coalition candidate, but Ssuubi which signed a memorandum of understanding with IPC last year, rallied behind Lukwago.

In backing Lukwago, Besigye appears to have realised that he is the stronger candidate. But it remains to be seen how Mabikke, a fellow member of the IPC Summit by virtue of being SDP leader, will react to the move.

What is clear is that the announcement will further deepen the rift within IPC.

Back to Buganda

On Sunday, Besigye started his second leg of his Buganda campaign in Nakaseke district on an unfortunate note. Two vehicles belonging to one of his local party supporters, Moses Kabarema, were burnt.

At Ngoma sub-county headquarters where the IPC candidate had his second rally, the venue was surrounded by Police officers.

Later in the evening, Besigye was blocked under unclear circumstances from accessing the premises of Nakaseke FM where he was scheduled to have a talk-show.

The IPC campaign team had paid for a two-hour talk-show but after Besigye’s rally at Nakaseke sub-county headquarters, he found the radio premises padlocked. The radio proprietors, afraid that Besigye’s team could use force to access the premises, had deployed Police for protection.

On Monday, Besigye took the campaign to Luwero district. During the rallies, Besigye attacked Museveni for his continued criticism of past governments, saying he had not performed any better.

“He went to the bush because of rigging but today NRM is specialised in rigging,” Besigye said. He urged his supporters not to fear and to resist any form of intimidation from security agencies.

Besigye makes big statement in Mbale

In today's Observer, Edris Kiggundu reports about Dr. Kizza Besigye's electrifying reception in Mbale and it's neighbourhood.

The IPC flag bearer, Dr Kizza Besigye, has made a good impression on Bugisu sub-region, with what has been described as his biggest rally so far held in Mbale municipality on Monday.

Traffic flow into the town was paralysed for several hours as supporters of the FDC leader sealed off three major roads leading in and out of Mbale town centre.

Since the early morning hours, a group of Kadodi dancers had been making rounds within the municipality, sweeping the roads as they warmed up the atmosphere in preparation for Besigye’s arrival.

When it clocked 4pm, this group was joined by other FDC enthusiasts who camped at the clock tower roundabout – one of the major landmarks in Mbale town- to clear the way for their candidate’s convoy. For about one hour, this group scrutinised each vehicle that passed by.

The password was to simply flash FDC’s V sign, or chant any of the FDC slogans. Drivers that broke the rules, like the driver of a pick-up truck pasted with President Museveni’s posters, faced harassment at the hands of the FDC supporters.

At the main rally at Mbale Secondary School playground, Besigye was moved by this show of support and the mammoth crowd that turned up to receive him.

“Whenever I come to Mbale, I feel at home,” he told the crowd. “I am the president of Mbale and when Museveni comes here, he is a visitor.”

Besigye’s Bugisu campaign strategy here seems to have been designed to negate any gains that the NRM could have made.

Throughout his campaigns here, he was accompanied by Mbale municipality MP Jack Wamai and Budadiri West legislator Nandala Mafabi. The FDC Vice President for Western Uganda, Nuwe Amanya Mushega, also re-joined the trail in Bugisu, having earlier made an appearance in Busoga.

In Bududa, Mushega asked those who had benefitted from the ‘Prosperity for All Programme’ to raise their hand, but no one did.

“This government has taken you for granted. It promises things it cannot deliver. If you want an efficient and effective government, vote for the IPC and you will see change in your life,” said Mushega, who for long served as education minister under the NRM.

Besigye said Mafabi had performed better than government, in his role as chairman of the Parliament Accounts Committee, by working towards a graft free country.

“You show me anyone who has been prosecuted after being pinned by the CHOGM report,” Besigye said in Bududa Town Council on Tuesday.

At Bulucheke sub-country headquarters, still in Bududa, Besigye criticised government’s response to the Bududa mudslides which occurred early in the year and claimed more than 200 lives.

His campaign message was largely the same wherever he went, emphasising what his government shall do if elected, while at the same time criticising some of the government policies which he said have not helped the people.

On his part, Mafabi scoffed at attempts by government to arrest him over claims that he mismanaged the Bugisu Cooperative Union (BCU) which he chairs. He said ever since he started fighting graft in Parliament, government has tried to look for ways of curtailing him, hence the latest false accusations.

“I am ready to face the President and tell him off. There is nothing for me to fear because I know I have done nothing wrong,” he said.

Despite the good reception, FDC’s work is still well cut out, particularly deep in the rural areas. The NRM enjoys support at the lowest levels of administration (LC) where IPC have failed to field candidates.

Mafabi told The Observer that the performance of the FDC will greatly improve in the 2011 elections, adding that they hope to wrestle the whole sub-region from the NRM.

“Even you can see there is a big change here. People have abandoned the NRM because of its lies. They know that when it promises to do something, it will not deliver,” Mafabi said in Manafwa on Tuesday.

Besigye campaigns in divided NRM-land

In 2001, Museveni got 78 percent of the Busoga vote and 70 percent in 2006. However, the omens are not good for Museveni and the NRM this time, writes The Independent's Eriasa Mukiibi in this December article.

To get to Nawankandulo village in Buzaaya County, just slightly off the Jinja-Kamuli highway, one must take a narrow, bumpy road whose Busoga reddish-brown earth surface sends the cars in our convoy skidding.

I took this road on Nov.26 with retired Col. Dr. Kizza Besigye, who was on the campaign trail in the area.  Nawankandulo is the village of the prominent Foreign Affairs Minister of State and area MP, Isaac Musumba. In Besigye’s convoy was Mukasa Sowed, the man who wants to kick Musumba off the Buzaaya County MP seat in the elections next year. Ironically, Besigye’s guide in the area was Salamu Musumba, who – you guessed it, is Mrs Musumba.

They took different political paths; Musumba remaining in President Yoweri Museveni’s National Resistance Movement (NRM) party camp and Salamu joining the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) of Besigye. However, their relative did not change and Salamu did not miss the opportunity to arrange a tantalizing meeting between Besigye and her uncle-in-law, Musumba’s uncle.

 The venue of Besigye’s rally was an open place about 150 meters away from Musumba’s home and overlooked a couple of matchbox, sugar and tea-selling tiny shops and a ministry of Health dispensary that formed what passes for a trading centre in rural Kamuli.

 Mzee Musumba, Salamu’s uncle-in-law, lived a short distance nearby. He was perched on a stone, next to what appeared to be his kitchen doing a round of sunbathing and appeared startled when Besigye’s cars parked in his compound. He moved hesitantly towards the car, curiosity written all over his face. Clad in a faded blue denim shirt, black trousers and red slippers, the old man looked your typical village folk. His house was also typically small, rusty-brown iron-sheet roof and walls that would do with a fresh coat of paint.

Salamu introduced Besigye and the old man embraced him. Seats were hastily arranged and a motley crowd of about twenty people gathered around the compound that was covered in parched greenery. Besigye, who is the presidential candidate for a loose grouping of five political entities, the Inter-party Cooperation (IPC), dived right into campaigning.

I was among the original founders of the NRM, he told the crowd, but I jumped ship once the party started serving the interests of a few. He delved into the poor state of health care, saying there are no essential drugs in government facilities to the extent that 20 women die in labour every day, many due to lack of basic drugs like those that stop bleeding. 

“Iffe tusekula miti,” interjected Mzee Musumba - meaning “We have resorted to local herbs”.   It was a one-liner packed with all the frustration people in the area feel about the poorly-run health sector. Besigye, who has couched the February 18 general election as a referendum on President Yoweri Museveni’s failure to eradicate poverty, especially in the Busoga sub-region, jumped on it.

The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) on Oct. 26 announced that the number of absolute poor Ugandans had not only reduced by an impressive 7.8 percent since 2006 to 23 percent, but that the poor’s absolute figure had actually reduced from 8.4 million to 7.1 million to date, seemed to provide ammunition for Museveni’s campaign. 

But Besigye spoke adamantly about how the common man’s lot has worsened and how Museveni’s continued stay in government will further worsen matters. It will be even worse for Busoga, he said, a region he said holds the crown as the “headquarters of poverty” under the NRM government.  

Soon it was time for the rally proper and off we scampered. Besigye spent eight days in Busoga and spoke at numerous rallies and stopovers and home visits. 

At all venues he stuck to the same message: “You know all about the prevailing situation and I needn’t waste time elaborating on it,” he would start out before making a quick wrap up of the situation, carefully picking on issues that touch the locals. “I have been made to understand that a kilogram of maize grain goes for Shs 100 here,” he said as he sought to connect with the audience. At Nawankandulo, the crowd roared back that a kilo sometimes sells at Shs 50.

“That means that after six months of hard work, a farmer gets paid Shs 10,000 for a sack of maize grain,” he said before launching into the hook, “How many fish can one buy for Shs 10,000?”

Two, one, shouted the crowd in anger. “So six months’ hard work earns you a fish or two to eat in one meal!”

Besigye would then plunge into the rosy Uganda, the Basoga would enjoy if they elected him on February 18, 2011. He would establish national food reserve stores to buy produce from farmers at predetermined prices.

“We shall set prices before the start of the season at which the stores shall be buying produce, but on harvesting, you will be free to sell to those who offer higher prices and only sell to the stores as a last resort,” he said to applause. 

His government will support irrigation and institute tractor hire services where farmers will use the tractors and pay for the services after selling their produce. “This system was working here in the 1960s, it is neither new nor non-practicable,” he assured voters.  

   

 Forget the angry Besigye of 2001, 2006. This one is calm, smiling, dancing and jovial. He continually seeks to engage the audience before reeling off more promises. He promised a uniform minimum sum for whoever qualifies for university and a student loan scheme from which students will borrow to pay the balance of their fees. 

“You will no longer have to sell off your land for your children to go to university,” he declared to excited audiences. 

Busoga region has always voted overwhelmingly for Museveni and the NRM in past elections.  In 2001, Museveni got 78 percent of the Busoga vote and 70 percent in 2006. However, the omens are not good for Museveni and the NRM this time.

As Besigye campaigned in Buzaaya, Musumba was up to some business that could not have been music to his boss, Museveni’s ear. 

A day earlier, on Nov. 25, he had been nominated to try and retain his Buzaaya County MP seat, but this time as an independent candidate.  The area NRM party members had kicked him off the party ticket in favour of Martin Muzaale. Two NRM candidates on the ticket could favour FDC’s Sowed Mukasa.

A similar situation is playing out in Salamu’s Bugabula South. Lands state minister Asuman Kiyingi also defied his party and got nominated to run again, despite having lost to former Makerere University guild president Morris Kibalya in the race for NRM flag bearer. Kiyingi is displaying his campaign posters alongside Museveni’s. That could favour Salamu.

Salamu is FDC’s point woman in Kamuli district, which she says is the capital of Busoga politics. She combines eloquence, a quick wit and powerful mobilisation capacity. On Nov. 25, the day she got nominated to run for Bugabula South MP on an FDC ticket, her house in Namwendwa village in Kamuli district was a centre of intense activity. 

Booked for nomination at 10:00 am, she showed up six hours later. “I couldn’t leave home because I kept receiving delegation after delegation,” she later told The Independent. Seated on steps in her tiled-floor living room close to mid-night, she said there is a big possibility that they will this time deliver Busoga to FDC. 

“We have ensured that we work closely together and not undermine one another as FDC leaders in Busoga,” she says as she tries to contrast the situation with NRM leaders within the sub-region whose wrangles over who has more influence have been widely documented. 

Dr. Frank Nabwiso, the administrator at IPC headquarters who is running for Kagoma County MP in Jinja district, told The Independent that FDC’s campaigns in Busoga are coordinated by an eight-officer strong team that works closely with the FDC national mobilisation secretary, Maj. Gen. Mugisha Muntu. Salam and Nabwiso are part of this team. 

Nabwiso, like Musumba, relishes his chances in Kagoma County, where he is facing nine NRM-leaning candidates. He believes NRM’s failure to unify its support behind one candidate in each constituency is a pointer that it is ready to surrender Busoga to FDC.  

He says FDC has fronted candidates in all constituencies in the sub-region except Bukooli Central in Bugiri district, which they agreed to leave for Jeema president Asuman Basalirwa. Since none of the other IPC partner parties has fronted a single parliamentary candidate in Busoga, the race is very much between FDC and NRM.

Salam, who is fondly referred to as Maama Busoga, feels her party’s support has grown phenomenally in the region, especially due to what she calls the neglect of the sub-region by the current government and incessant mobilisation on their part. She predicts that intimidation and voter bribery will this time play an insignificant role in swaying the Busoga vote. 

This is the third time Salamu is trying to resurrect her electoral fortunes in a period of five years. She lost the Bugabula South seat to Lands state minister Asuman Kiyingi in 2006 after Museveni promised the voters that he would appoint Kiyingi minister.

Less than five years later, the voters turned against Kiyingi, probably as a signal that his being a minister had not delivered what they had expected. Salamu vied for the Kamuli district chair in 2007 still with no success, in a battle that heavily drew in President Museveni. 

After her nomination on Nov. 25, Salamu told her party supporters in Kamuli township that there is a lot to look forward to since the ground has shifted from under NRM’s feet. And she seemed to speak on firm ground. Her entry into the township had caused paralysis as people run in droves to receive her, which was not exactly the case with the candidates that had been nominated earlier, including Deputy Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga. 

Flanked by the contestant for the Kamuli Woman MP seat on FDC ticket, Prossy Naikoba, Salamu braved a heavy downpour punctuated with hailstorm on her way from the district council hall where the nomination took place. 

Naikoba, who is challenging Kadaga for the second time, is an administrator at FDC headquarters at Najjanankumbi in Kampala. 

She fancies her chances this time round, claiming her challenger has been panicked into spreading rumours that she has bribed her out of the race. Naikoba is thankful to Salamu, who she says has mentored her politically. She believes the anti-incumbency tendency in Kamuli, which saw two ministers lose primaries, will spillover countrywide. 

But Musumba and Kiyingi don’t think so. Alfred Waiswa, Kiyingi’s supporter, told The Independent at Namwendwa in Bugabula South that his candidate and President Museveni will win and the NRM primaries were not a good indicator of what is to come. 

“We have learnt that there are many FDC supporters who voted in the NRM primaries and their objective was to vote for candidates they would easily beat in the parliamentary elections,” claimed Waiswa.

One of Musumba’s assistants told The Independent that the voters could have wanted to punish his boss but now that he had “repented”, they are likely to return him to parliament. 

Kadaga, on her part, has a trump card she hopes shall help her keep her seat. Alongside her campaign poster hanging in the Kamuli town council roundabout, is that of Prince William Gabula Nadiope IV, one of the candidates for the post of Kyabazinga (King). Kadaga backs Nadiope while most NRM-leaning politicians back Prince Edward Wambuzi, the son of the most recent Kyabazinga, Henry Wako Muloki. 

Since Prince Nadiope of Bugabula hails from Kamuli district, the local voters are expected to back whoever backs him for the contested seat and Kadaga argues she is best placed to ensure Nadiope’s enthronement because she has the clout in government. 

The electoral fortunes of party parliamentary flag bearers could swing the same way as those of their presidential candidates; another reason for President Museveni to not only fight for his political life but that of his lieutenants’ in Busoga too.     

When Museveni starts his campaigns in Busoga sub-region beginning Dec. 13, erasing what Besigye told the voters will be crucial. 

Besigye seemed aware of this whenever he spoke: “They (NRM and Museveni) will come here and try to lie and even bribe you,” he reminded the voters, “take the bribes but you have an even more important duty -ensuring that those who try to bribe you do not win because if they do, you will pay back the bribe ten thousand times.” 

Salamu thinks the voters have taken Besigye’s message to heart and points at the many NRM people who dished out money in the NRM primaries but were defeated. 

But FDC could come under pressure over candidates it is fielding who have not been in active politics and were convinced to run just days to nominations. 

Two of them said their party had paid their nomination fees, was in the process of printing campaign posters for them, and get them vehicles, and fuel to run campaigns. Where is the commitment?   

   

Although Besigye’s support in Busoga grew by 12 percentage points from 2001 to 29 percent in 2006, President Yoweri Museveni still beat him by 40 percentage points. Besigye believes that is now in the past. He says better organisation and NRM’s poor performance in the poverty eradication drive punctuated by corruption gives his party a clear edge in Busoga. In two months, we will know if he is right.

Playing the numbers game to effect

In an article published yesterday, Daily Monitor's Charles Mwanguhya Mpagi looks at how candidates are pulling out all the stops on the campaign trail.

Who is attracting more crowds and who is actually meeting more people? And out of this, what translates into real votes? This is the debate consuming major political camps in the 2011 presidential race. The same debate first emerged during the 2001 elections after President Museveni’s camp, facing a surprise candidate in Dr Kizza Besigye spent weeks arguing about the crowd Mr Museveni pulled into Kololo Independence Grounds for his post nomination speech and official campaign launch.

Mr Museveni claimed that 1.5 million people attended the rally. Reacting to a Daily Monitor story then that put the crowd at 35,000 people, he said, “After reading The Monitor story that 35,000 people attended my nomination, using the distance between the roads surrounding Kololo Airstrip, I have since measured that 1.5 million people attended in my support,” Sunday Monitor of January 22, 2001 quoted Museveni as saying.

He claimed to supporters at the then Nile International Conference Centre that he had calculated the length of the Kololo Airstrip which he found was 800 metres by 300 metres, adding that assuming that one person occupied one foot then 1.5 million people attended. Norbert Mao, then an MP but now a candidate accused the Movement camp of ferrying supporters.

In the 2006 elections the same debate again emerged. A story is told of how President Museveni almost slapped an aide after all that appeared on the cover pages of both Sunday Monitor and Sunday Vision was himself and about two other people wearing dry banana leaves (essanja) the then campaign symbol.

Newspapers, both private and government controlled, were subjected to intense pressure to ‘find better pictures’ of the crowds. 2011 is different. Mr Museveni has been pictured addressing crowds. Asked if the President’s camp was happy, Mr Museveni’s political assistant and campaign strategist Moses Byaruhanga said, “very much. Many organise [to attend] on their own but we help them a bit.”

Like Camp Besigye, Camp Otunnu seems to be aiming at addressing “people of conviction” than seas of people that may not necessarily translate into votes. Both Mr Otunnu and Dr Besigye are being seen with patients in hospitals or with impoverished peasants in their dwellings.

Camp Besigye says they believe their strategy is working. “We designed it [in such away] that it is better to appear in as many places as possible and have one major rally in an area and we think it is working effectively,” said Augustine Ruzindana, a strategist in the Besigye campaign.

Mr Ruzindana says they are aware of the psychological games the Museveni camp is trying to play with the numbers. “Crowds are psychological but they only play for those who have TV and can read newspapers,” he said.

According to sources close to the Museveni campaign, the strategy for 2011 was drawn to influence a critical section of the voting population -- young people who constitute the largest voter segment. To this group, image is everything and the media is of critical significance. Larger than life posters of Museveni dot even the most obscure spots of city and other urban areas. The camp has even erected giant posters on the road leading from the only airport in the country at Entebbe.

To assure attendances at rallies, the Museveni campaign has assembled whole bands of popular national musicians. What the TV crews and photographers are not capturing in the pictures at President Museveni’s rallies are the concerts that are actually taking place on location.

Mr Byaruhanga defends this saying the musicians are not pre-advertised to influenced the people, but it is a fact that in every town where his candidate is going to be, trucks loaded with music equipment first make the rounds in towns announcing the free entertainment.

A report by the Democracy Monitoring Group (DEMgroup) released two weeks ago said people were being driven to Museveni campaign venues in some cases with local leaders using government vehicles to ferry them from villages to towns. There have been reports of individuals being paid.

The Besigye camp is supplementing its main rallies with a series of mini-rallies to ‘introduce’ their candidate to as many people as possible in a version of what the Americans call “press the flesh” events. It is also about image-changing from the media projection of him as “an angry man.”

Dr Besigye and Mr Otunnu seem to be following a similar strategy, getting very personal opportunities to explain to ordinary voters “the deception of progress, peace and tranquillity,” that Museveni lays claim to having established.

Another critical decision the various camps have had to deal with is where to start the campaign and where to end it. In 2006 President Museveni held a major rally in Gulu. His camp celebrated, but shortly after, Dr Besigye went to Gulu and seemed to attract even larger crowds, forcing Mr Museveni to return to the region.

Before the launch of the current campaign, Museveni strategists, who anticipated that he would reap from the end of the war and the return of peace up north were keen to start him in the area long seen as most hostile to him. This, his handlers believed, would work to rally President Museveni’s base especially in the west following a difficult relationship with Buganda and overtures by both prominent Baganda and the opposition to project his diminished influence in the region. A better showing in the north was a must.

Dr Besigye instead chose Bunyoro and Tooro, areas where Museveni is seen to be still strongest. With the President detached from the crowds partly by his security and Dr Besigye, Otunnu and the other candidates freely mixing with the voters, strategists are beginning to ask who is actually winning. Does it make better sense to gather 20,000 people in one ground and assume you have spoken to the people or meet thousands in more than two or three places?

And in Dr Besigye’s camp, the question is: does meeting people directly mean his message is penetrating especially as he gets shut off radio stations? DP’s Mao is using rally style on the trail as is Jaberi Bidandi Ssali of the PPP. Dr Abed Bwanika has seen his numbers significantly increase after clashes with the police in Masaka and Lira.