Kampala, Uganda: A political storm is brewing inside the National Unity Platform (NUP) after Kampala politician Winifred Nakandi dramatically bowed out of the race for the party’s flag ahead of the 2026 general election, just hours after the party announced dates for the vetting of parliamentary aspirants, citing alleged irregularities and lack of transparency in the process.
Nakandi, who had formally declared interest in running on the NUP ticket, announced her withdrawal on Thursday evening after what she described as extensive consultations with her campaign team.
Today, I have made the difficult but necessary decision to step down from the race for the NUP
flag for the position of Woman MP – Kampala District. The past 10 days have seen media awash with accusations of irregularities in our party vetting process, many of which leaders have chosen to dismiss. The most common among these were biased selection of candidates, influence peddling, and ringfencing of positions.” Nakandi wrote.
“The results (and subsequent significant contestation) of local government flagbearers point to the bigger problem that is the Election Management Committee and its independence or lack thereof,” she added.
Nakandi, who is widely known to be a close associate of Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine, the NUP President, accused the party’s Elections Management Committee (EMC) of breaching internal procedures and operating outside the party’s legal framework.
Among her concerns was the alleged fraudulent issuance of party membership cards to individuals she claimed were not residents of Kampala, a move she argued compromised the integrity of the vetting process.
Nakandi further alleged that some aspirants were being deliberately redirected to constituencies they had not applied for, which she described as an attempt to sideline genuine contenders in favor of others.
“There have been unfair practices designed to favor certain individuals and discourage genuine candidates,” she added.
Despite stepping down, Nakandi stressed that her decision did not amount to abandoning NUP. “In the future, when the process of choosing party flag bearers is better streamlined and more transparent, I will be glad to compete,” she noted, while dismissing speculation that she had been bribed or coerced into quitting.
She instead urged the party leadership to address aspirants’ concerns, particularly around financial influence and accountability in internal processes. “NUP should focus on uniting members instead of creating divisions. Transparency and fairness must guide all internal processes,” she said.
Nakandi’s withdrawal adds to a growing wave of discontent among NUP aspirants, several of whom have recently questioned the transparency of the party’s vetting and nomination procedures.
The NUP leadership had yet to issue an official response to Nakandi’s allegations at the time of filing this story on Thursday evening.
If you would like your article/opinion to be published on Uganda’s most authoritative news platform, send your submission on: [email protected]. You can also follow DailyExpress on WhatsApp and on Twitter (X) for realtime updates.
