EC Boss Byabakama Regrets Messing Up Kyagulanyi’s   Nomination Supporter Signatures Certificate.

By Abraham Lincolns

The chairman of the electoral commission Justice Simon Byabakama Mugyenyi has regretted messing up the supporter signatures and certificate of compliance of NUP party president Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu which was issued on the same day they were rejected.

Kyagulanyi was awarded a nomination clearance certificate on  22nd September 2025 but reportedly duly signed on 19th September 2025, the same day he was told to resubmit signatures of the 35 districts whose support signatures had loopholes something that caused a mix reactions from the public and especially NUP supporters.

According to NUP president, the electoral commission was playing a delaying tactic of pushing their nomination date to allow president Museveni be nominated first and it’s the reason the EC asked for more signature even after he had  signed   the NUP certificate of compliance.

“As predicted by many Ugandans, the ridiculous claims about us not submitting enough signatures were intended to push us from our date of nomination. The cowardly regime did not want us to be nominated

on the same day”, Kyagulanyi posted on his official social media handles as he attached a controversial certificate back dated.

In his response during  a press conference, Justice Byabakama conceded to have signed the NUP certificate of compliance on 19th September , 2025 but issued it on 22nd September 2025 adding that  the dates is very minor because it was a typing error done by his staff who prepared the document.

“It is true that the certificate we issued to Kyagulanyi bears the dates of 19 th September 2025 but I want to affirm, very definitely and assertively that am the one who signed that certificate but the people who made it I think made the error on the date.

In any case, we could not sign on the certificate on 19th yet on the same day we wrote to Kyagulanyi informing him that he had not met the required number of supporter signatures  from the 98 districts then at the same time issue a certificate on the same day”, Byabakama asserted.

Byabakama added that this shouldn’t be a big deal because when Kyagulanyi initially submitted the necessary requirements, he did not submit the required number of signatures but the commission went an extra mile of notifying him for rectification which he did hence awarding him a certificate of compliance.

“No one should make it a big deal out of this, let us look at the bigger picture. When Kyagulanyi first submitted the list of supporters, he did not meet the required quarter. Secondly, we notified him, he

submitted more names which we verified over the weekend and issued a certificate of compliance, and to me that is the bigger picture. If we wanted you to fail, we would not have informed you”, Kyabakama

added

When asked why the controversy is directly linked to the change of Kyagulanyi’s date of nomination,

Byabakama said that he communicated the dates and time he wants to be nominated but the electoral

commission reserves the right and the power to determine the date and time for a candidate not the opposite as earlier requested by Bobi wine adding that 24th September is not outside the prescribed official dates of nomination.

“We have many factors we consider while giving dates for nomination. You can’t nominate candidates with the propensity to pull crowds on the same day. Museveni and candidate Kyagulanyi are both crowd

pullers that is why we had to give different dates. Byabakama pointed out .