The Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Ms Betty Amongi, has accused Speaker Anita Among and Health minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng of orchestrating electoral malpractice in Lira City’s parliamentary elections.
Ms Amongi claims Ms Among mobilised Shs4.2 billion and more than 10 buses of people to bribe voters and manipulate ballots in favour of Dr Aceng.
Ms Amongi, who is also the outgoing Oyam South MP, contested on the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) party ticket to uproot Dr Aceng of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party from Lira City Woman MP seat.
Speaking on a local radio station in Lira City on Monday, Ms Amongi claimed that soldiers were involved in marking ballots, with one soldier reportedly admitting to ticking 2,000 ballots for Dr Aceng. She also pointed to irregularities in polling stations, citing abnormally high vote counts for Dr Aceng.
However, Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF) 5 Infantry Division Public Information Officer, Capt Ibrahim Kasule Sekitto, dismissed the claims. He explained that soldiers seen at polling stations were there to exercise their right to vote, not to engage in ballot stuffing.
‘They voted for the candidate of their choice, one vote per soldier at a polling station where they were registered,” Capt Kasule told Daily Monitor yesterday, adding that soldiers cast their votes peacefully from Lango Quran Primary School, Lira Army Primary School, Senior Quarters, and Railways polling stations.
Asked how many UPDF soldiers were present in Lira before and during the January 15 parliamentary and presidential polls, Capt Sekitto said: ‘Actually, we had a good number but not all voted. Like for me, when I was transferred here in December, they had already finished updating the voter register. I was unable to vote because I was registered in Kampala.’
He further explained soldiers have a right to vote because they are Ugandans and are aged 18 and above.
‘And being in the military doesn’t take away your right to vote. During the registration of voters, someone registers where he works or originates from. As UPDF Division 5, we voted in Lira City because we were registered voters and we were in the Electoral Commission’s register,’ said Capt Sekitto.
We could not get a comment from the Parliament’s Director of Communications and Public Affairs, Mr Chris Obore, by press time.
Prior to the January 15 polls, the Speaker of Parliament asked President Museveni to urge Ms Amongi to withdraw from the Lira City Woman parliamentary race.
While acknowledging that some Opposition members genuinely support the NRM and its ideology, the Speaker cautioned the President against being overly accommodating, warning that excessive leniency could be politically costly.
She urged the President to exercise his authority as the appointing authority to compel Ms Amongi to step aside from the parliamentary contest.
‘I am speaking as the second national vice chairperson [of NRM]. I know I am your vice but I must do work for you to get a good party. We cannot continue hobnobbing with people who do not believe in us and I want to thank the UPC members who love us genuinely. And Your Excellency, I want to thank you for believing in the politics of ideology and not identity,’ Ms Among told Mr Museveni, the NRM national chairperson, at a rally in Lira City on January 8, 2026.
Aceng’s response
However, Dr Aceng said she won the seat genuinely in last week’s election. Aceng polled 38,074 votes against Ms Amongi’s 26,199 votes against, according to data from the Electoral Commission.
In her address last Friday, Dr Aceng framed the success not merely as a political win but as a spiritual triumph, emphasising that ‘there is no battle that God can never win’.
‘There is no battle that God can never win. And today, this day, I believe the people of Lira now know there is a God that I serve, a God in heaven that I serve. And be it known to you, my opponents, and to all the people of Lira City, there is a God in heaven, the almighty God. We serve Him,’ said the minister of Health.
Dr Aceng added: ‘First of all, we are protecting our gains. And we have a lot to protect in all sectors, because there is so much that the NRM government has done. First of all, giving us a city alone is a gain that we have to protect.’
But Ms Amongi has vowed not to recognise Dr Aceng as the legitimate MP. ‘Dr Jane Ruth Aceng is not our Member of Parliament as the people of Lira City. She will remain a Member of Parliament for those who planned for her cheating and she can never have peace and respect in the Lango Sub-region because she is not an elected Member of Parliament.’
She added: ‘I cannot transact business with a criminal and we shall not disappear from the politics of this country.’
Mr Patrick Odongo, alias Odongo Lango, who supports Dr Aceng, said Ms Amongi is a sour loser.
‘It’s an open secret that no love has been lost between Amongi and Speaker Among. People must remember how Among, in a cleverly worded question in Bukedea, exposed the incompetence of Amongi in providing political oversight of the Generating Growth Opportunities and Productivity for Women Enterprises (GROW) project,’ he said.
Mr Odongo added: ‘Speaker Anita Among didn’t relent. At the official campaign rally of the President at Lira Golf Course (January 8), she took it a notch higher. She questioned why Amongi, a Cabinet minister, bound by collective responsibility, must use resources from the NRM government to fight her fellow minister. Among vowed to camp in Lira City to ensure Dr Jane wins the election.’