Opposition presidential hopeful Col Kizza Besigye Kifefe has formed a new squad across the country aimed at protecting his turf in the next year’s election, Red Pepper has reliably learnt.

Former FDC leader Kizza Besigye addresses a press conference in Kampala recently.
Former FDC leader Kizza Besigye addresses a press conference in Kampala recently.

The opposition political parties particularly Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has consistently claimed that government through Electoral Commission steals its victory.

In a bid to protect the vote, in this hotly contested race, FDC chairman Ambassador Waswa Biriggwa, yesterday announced that the party has formed a new group of radicals dubbed Power 10 Strategy (P10) comprised of parish councilors and other diehards who will safeguard Besigye’s victory come February 18th 2016.

“After an assessment, we found out that FDC was much more concentrated in towns and therefore we rolled out a program to recruit and strengthen the party at the grass root. This was intended to empower the people at the grass root to vote and also protect the vote,” Biriggwa said.

He added that they found it wanting to create a machinery that will oversee the process and also counter any external forces whose plan is to rig Kizza Besigye of his victory.

Birigwa’s deputy campaign chief Wycliffe Bakandonda, said that this new infrastructure has been formulated out of FDC district coordinators, sub county and parish chief, “we went down the parish and got 10 coordinators, each coordinator among the 10 will be required to recruit more 10. When you do the calculations you will find that the total number of P10 is 7 million Ugandans who are enough to vote NRM out.”

The Electoral Commission roughly estimates the total number of voters to be 15 million.

If FDC successfully recruits the p10 army across the country, this means that it will share half of the voters, a number that is enough to see Besigye president next year.

Biriggwa said that the operation has so far been triumphant in western Uganda where Besigye launched his campaigns and therefore by December 20th the whole of Uganda will be painted colour blue.

FDC however, refuted claims that the new formed squad is unlawful as per the guidelines of the EC which vetoed all militia groups created by both government and opposition to protect the polls.

Defiance campaign stands

Biriggwa also took time to respond to UPDF commander Gen Katumba Wamala who last Saturday warned FDC candidate Kizza Besigye against inciting the electorate with his venomous campaign rhetoric.

“Our campaign is standing on four legs; defiance, liberation, restructuring of state institutions and social economic transformation. Besigye has explained these four issues variously. We shall explain again but in particular what we mean by defiance. What we mean here is that we shall not accept to adhere to any directive that is unlawful or nay law that deviates from Universal Human Rights,” Biriggwa said.

However, several government institutions including EC on several occasions have warned Besigye to desist from such campaign that is likely to ferment anarchy.

A number of UPDF high ranking officers have come out vehemently to warn that Besigye’s remarks could propel army to step in.