KAMPALA .
The newly formed People’s Front for Freedom (PFF) has announced that it will not hold internal primaries to choose candidates for the 2026 general elections.
According to Michael Kabaziguruka, the chairperson of the PFF Electoral Commission, instead of holding internal primaries , the party will use a hybrid system combining consensus and vetting.
“We have opted for a hybrid approach – to seek consensus between aspirants and where it fails, the Party Electoral Commission will put together a vetting committee that will vet the aspirants and select the person that gives the party the best shot at winning,” Mr Kabaziguruka said during a press conference at PFF headquarters on Katonga Road in Kampala on Monday .
According to Mr Kabaziguruka, vetting for parliamentary, district chairperson, and mayoral positions will be conducted at the party headquarters, while district-level positions will be vetted locally between August 4 and August 15.
Electoral supervisors have been appointed in each district, in consultation with the party’s national electoral commission .
He added that disputes at the local level will be escalated to the party headquarters, and final appeals will be handled by the Council of Eminent Persons, which is the party’s top arbitration body.
Kabaziguruka explained that the party only received its official registration certificate on June 5, leaving little time to establish village-level structures.
Meanwhile, aspiring candidates continue to collect expression of interest forms ahead of the July 31 deadline.
Meantime, Kabaziguruka also voiced concern over reported violence during the NRM primaries on July 17, in which at least over seven people were killed and more than 90 arrested in crime linked to the vote.
“I saw a former deputy Inspector General of Police being beaten… Jotham Taremwa, former Electoral Commission spokesperson, was battered by security forces. If this is happening within the NRM, what will they do to us?” he asked.
President Museveni has since condemned the violence, vote-rigging and bribery that marred the ruling party’s primaries.
“These are political and ideological crimes and must be condemned by all lovers of NRM and Uganda,” Museveni said in a Sunday statement.