Bobi Wine dismissed the electoral commission’s election campaign strategy.

Bobi real name Robert Kyagulanyi in an interview with NBS TV told his supporters: “I am ready for an election as prescribed by the law. There is no ‘scientific election’. ”

The People Power pressure group chief went on to warn: “Justice Byabakama should know that he is in a very sensitive position. I don’t want to be politically correct. I say it as it is.”

The Kyadondo East legislator goes on to argue that the media which the electoral commission has recommended for campaigns, doesn’t effectively reach 30% of the population.

The media has changed quite a lot in the recent times. It is more than we were used to. Despite a composition of 300 something and 80 Radio and Tv stations in the country, it is more than New Vision, Monitor, Red Pepper, NTV, NBS TV, UBC, Galaxy FM and Radio Uganda among others.

Uganda’s population is a young one according to the census population reports, about 75% of the entire 45M that the country boosts today. A greater section of this population is above the voting age.

What media does this population use? Here is why Bobi Wine and his team need not worry. Recent Ipsos research report put active media users at 22 million while mobile subscriptions at 25 million and internet subscriptions at 15 million.

The singer turned politician has swept into the young urban population and it is where his strength is. Many of his supporters are in the urban areas where they access internet.

They are therefore able to access social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. And are able to access his campaign message through his pages which include facebook with about 1.1M fans. And Twitter with about 600,000 followers.

Recent Bobi Wine performances have eclipsed social media live event attendances, which he is aware of. His most recent Freedom Show online attracted 368,000 fans watching and 31,000 sharing on facebook. These are amazing figures.

Former US President Barak Obama tapped into social media with great advantage when he rose up to put himself up for the world’s biggest job.

To his advantage, he had all walks of American youth embracing his call and it turned out into funding and votes.

Wikipedia wrote then: “By using social media and mobilizing the general public online, Obama was able to raise awareness and financial support of his campaign. … In the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama had more “friends” on Facebook and Myspace and more “followers” on Twitter than his opponent John McCain.”

The drum website explained: “Leading up to the 2008 election, Barack Obama was the first presidential candidate to embrace the power of social media to build his brand. He went from a relatively political unknown to the elected official by spreading grassroots efforts, pulling the rug from underneath the political establishment. The entire landscape of political campaigning changed through his use of grassroots fundraising, social media expertise and viral sensibilities used to defeat more prominently known candidates.”

The website went on: “The campaign hit during a tipping point of social media and smartphone adoption. Obama used social media to bypass traditional media and connect directly with supporters.

He used Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, MySpace, Digg, Podcasts, and more (even many niche networks that are now defunct).

By utilizing crowdsourcing, Obama captured thousands of supporters to create and distribute additional content. His own website barackobama.com hosted an array of materials that individuals could download and use themselves to spread the message, among other tools to organize supporters and volunteers.”

Bobi Wine has a huge advantage that he will use his platforms not only to drive his message but also urge his supporters to go and vote on the polling day.

Out of the 15M people that registered to vote in the elections of 2016, 9M turned up where President Yoweri Museveni was announced winner by the electoral commission. In 2011, 14M people registered to vote but 8M embraced the voting exercise.

Bobi Wine and his team at People Power will have a massive job on their hands to drive people out of their homes to the polling points to vote. Young people are easily dissuaded when they are disfranchised. In 2016, many stayed away when the ballot papers delayed to arrive at the voting points. Many are workers and want to spend as little time as possible at voting points.

His other challenge will most likely come during the time of voting and counting exercise. Whether or not his campaign agents and voters will be allowed to monitor the exercise. With the Covid-19 pandemic, people will not be allowed to stay at the polling centres to witness the vote counting.

Opposition has claimed in the previous elections they get rigged out during vote counting exercise. They have raised the issue of pre-ticked ballot papers and harassing of their polling agents during the counting exercise.

It is not only a headache the Bobi but the entire opposition as well. President Museveni also cried foul especially in Kampala, claiming he was rigged by the opposition.