The Democratic Party (DP) Delegates Conference held two days in Mbarara on , spiraled into chaos amid serious allegations that party president Robert Mao and his inner circle orchestrated a plot to manipulate election outcomes by interfering with ballot handling and violating internal party procedures.
Tensions reached a boiling point when ballot boxes were abruptly removed from the main conference tent and taken to a nearby hotel under the orders of individuals allegedly aligned with Robert Mao. Delegates erupted in protest, accusing Mao’s team of attempting to rig the election in his favor by creating an opportunity for ballot tampering behind closed doors.
“The moment those boxes left the tent, we knew something was wrong,” said one concerned delegate. “Why move the ballots if everything is being done transparently?”
Presidential aspirant Lulume Bayigga led the outcry, describing the conference as a “sham” controlled by Robert Mao and Secretary General Gerald Siranda. According to Bayigga, the event was never meant to be a fair election but rather a coronation ceremony for Mao, designed and executed by a select clique within the party leadership.
“The numbers of delegates were inflated, legitimate regional delegates were excluded, and there was no accountability,” Bayigga declared. “This is not democracy — it is dictatorship
Adding fuel to the fire were reports from multiple regions that ballot boxes arrived with broken seals — a serious breach of election protocol. Candidates and their agents questioned whether the contents of the boxes had been tampered with during the controversial hotel transfer ordered by Mao’s team. Though electoral officials attempted to explain the broken seals as accidental, many delegates were unconvinced.
DP youth leaders and regional representatives issued a formal petition calling for an immediate halt to the party’s internal elections. They singled out Robert Mao and his handpicked “management committee” for conducting the process outside established party guidelines, warning that such behavior was eroding faith in the party’s future.
“This was a hijack — not a conference,” said one youth representative from the Central region. “We are watching the destruction of our party from within.”
Amid the turmoil, Bukoto Central MP Richard Sebamala questioned the legitimacy of constitutional amendments pushed through by Mao’s faction in 2020 — amendments that were never properly filed with the Electoral Commission. He warned that these changes, now being used to justify Mao’s grip on power, could be legally challenged
The events in Mbarara have laid bare the power struggles at the heart of the Democratic Party. With Robert Mao and his allies accused of orchestrating electoral fraud, manipulating delegate rolls, and trampling party procedures, the DP faces a crisis of legitimacy.
Whether the party can recover from this chaos — or whether it will fracture under the weight of internal betrayal — remains to be seen. But one thing is clear: Robert Mao’s leadership is now under intense scrutiny, not just from within the party, but from the national political arena.
