EC Switches Nomination Dates for Presidential Candidates

The Electoral Commission has brought forward the nomination dates for candidates for the presidential elections slated for January 2026. 

Justice Simon Byabakama, the EC Chairperson, says that nominations of presidential candidates will be conducted between September 23 and September 24, 2025.  This decision, according to Byabakama, was reached after considering the activities that the EC and the candidates are required by law to carry out between the end of the nominations and the start of the official campaigns. 

These include the capturing of the presidential nomination returns, the production of ballot paper samples and formalisation of the campaign programme, as well as the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding by all the nominated candidates. 

Presidential campaigns will be conducted between October 4, 2025 and January 12, 2026. “If we maintained the procedures as earlier planned, it would reduce the period availed for the candidates to campaign,” said Justice Byabakama. 

He says the nominations of candidates for elective positions for Local Government, including those of Special Interest Groups candidates, will be conducted from September 3 to September 12, 2025, with the specific dates set to be announced after the nominations exercise. 

According to the schedule, nominations for parliamentary election candidates will run from September 16 to September 17, 2025, while their campaigns will formally begin on September 23, 2025 and end on January 12, 2026. 

Elections of President, Members of Parliamentary and Local Government Councils, including Districts, Cities, Municipalities, Divisions and Subcounties and the representatives of Special Interest Groups will run between January 12 and February 9, 2026. 

Byabakama says that the specific dates will be announced after nominations. 

He has also urged those aspirants who do not possess an Advanced Level certificate of education, but have an equivalent, and those who acquired their qualifications outside Uganda, to present them to the National Council for Higher Education for verification. 

On verification, the NCHE will issue them the equivalence certificate, which they must present to the district election administrators or the Election Commission, two months before the elections.