Violence in the election campaign

The situation for opposition parties are getting worse because of the coming election in 2011. UYD experienced this on a rally recently. The presidential candidate for UYDs mother party Democratic Party (DP) Mr Norbert Mao where supposed to have a rally in Kampala. They had applied for the rally, and the police where notified.

Many UYD- members where at the rally, and in the beginning everything looked good for the speech. But suddenly the police and the military showed up, and told them to end the rally immediately because of security. The UYD/DP showed their papers of approval for the rally, but the police said the had not been notified.
They disused and came to an agreement, so Mr. Mao continued.

But then the policed and military opened fire. They where shooting live bullets from behind the stage, and UYD member John Marry had to protect the president. Everybody on stage had to hid, and the crowd was naturally scared. Luckily nobody was inured or killed in the attack.

UYD- member Brenda was standing on stage when the bullets came. Two television channels where there, and one of the camera men was beaten. But the other one managed to get away, so Brenda could see her self on television later that night.

- I can see that I suddenly gets scared, and that we dont know whats going on. We though everything was clear, but then the police changed their minds. But we will continue the campaigning; the struggle is our life, says Brenda.



Mr. Norbert Mao, the presidential candidate for DP