Uganda Elections: A Twitter Starter Pack

With Uganda’s elections a week away, social media has been lit as the candidates, pundits, journalists and ordinary people have all been using Twitter to share their hopes and expectations in the run-up to the February 18th polls

Here’s a list of who to follow to make sense of it all.

Twitter users

• Solomon Serwanjj, Uganda investigative reporter
• TMS Ruge, Co-founder of HiveColab, an innovation hub and startup incubator in Kampala, Uganda
• Rosebell Kagumire, Ugandan blogger and digital strategist
• Qatahar Raymond, Ugandan investigative reporter
• Daniel Kalinaki, Africa Editor at Nation Media Group
• Charles Onyango-Obbo, Editor Mail and Guardian Africa
• Angelo Izama, Ugandan analyst and blogger
• Prudence Nyamishana, Ugandan communications specialist and Global Voices Author
• Maurice Mugisha, head of news NTV Uganda
• Evelyn Namara, Ugandan social entrepreneur
• Andrew Mwenda, Ugandan journalist and political commentator
• Nduhukire, political reporter and anchor at NTV Uganda
• Alan Kasujja, BBC presenter in Uganda
• Catherine Byaruhanga, a Ugandan multi-media journalist
• ACME Uganda, The African Centre for Media Excellence (ACME)
• The Women’s Situation Room Uganda (WSRU),  a platform for early warning and a rapid response mechanism against election related violence and conflict in Uganda

News media

• NBS Television
• Daily Monitor newspaper
• NTV Uganda
• New Vision newspaper

Presidential candidates

• Kizza Besigye, candidate for Forum for Democratic Change
• Maureen Kyalya, independent candidate
• Abed Bwanika, candidate for People’s Development Party
• Amama Mbabazi, independent candidate under GoForward movement
• Yoweri Museveni, candidate for the ruling National Resistance Movement
• Venansius Baryamureeba, independent candidate
• Joseph Mabirizi, independent candidate

Uganda’s Electoral Commission

• ECUganda, official Twitter account of the electoral commission
• Jotham Taremwa, Spokesperson of Uganda Electoral Commission

Ugandans are tweeting with the hashtag #UgandaDecides, #IChoosePeaceUG, and #IPledgePeaceUG. as well, urging others to vote wisely and peacefully.

We have compiled the accounts into a handy list, here.

Photo Credit: AdamCohn via Compfight cc