The ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party through their flag bearer for the Luweero District Woman MP seat is contesting the decision of the district returning officer that handed victory to Ms Brenda Nabukenya of the National Unity Platform(NUP). The party says there was evidence of fraudulently fixed results from particular declaration forms.
Ms Agnes Kirabo, the NRM flag bearer, says her party has gathered enough evidence that proves that particular results for the declaration forms were not tallying with results on the physical declaration forms.
‘It was surprising that despite the availability of a screen to help everybody at the tally centre view the results to match the declaration forms in our possession, the returning officer and his team, perhaps with the intention to hide something irregular, ignored our concerns. We have the evidence to prove our discontent and reasons why we demand our victory as NRM,’ she told a press conference at the weekend.
On January 17, Ms Sam Agaba Rutemba, the district returning officer, declared Ms Nabukenya the winner of the Luweero District Woman MP race at the Luweero District Electoral Commission tally centre.
Ms Nabukenya got 67,399 votes while Ms Kirabo came second with 55,696 votes. Other candidates included Rahma Bisaso (Ind) with 2,371 votes, Mariam Nakiganda (Ind) who secured 2,926 votes, while Ms Moreen Nakuya of the Democratic Front party got 2,364 votes. The NRM camp in Luweero say Luweero District had a total of 649 polling stations where their candidate, Ms Kirabo, overwhelmingly won by more than 75 percent putting her slightly above the NUP candidate with more than 600 votes.
‘The surprise declaration of Ms Nabukenya against the known results that had earlier put our candidate [Kirabo] in the lead was the biggest surprise. We want this result set aside. We also pray that if our candidate is not declared the winner, then Ms Brenda Nabukenya should be gazetted to allow a formal court process that will challenge the result as provided by the Parliamentary Election Act,’ Ms Allen Nambalirwa, a member of Kirabo’s campaign team, told this publication.
But Ms Nabukenya said she is not bothered by Kirabo’s threats to challenge her victory and awaits a formal complaint that has been directed to the EC and possibly the court in case the process succeeds. Ms Kirabo is currently the Youth Member of Parliament representing the central region, while Ms Nabukenya is the incumbent District Woman MP for Luweero.
Background
Luweero District was the epicentre of the five-year guerrilla war that ushered Mr Museveni to power in 1986. However, 40 years later, residents of the area have remained poor, with some failing to enrol their children in relatively good schools despite being largely loyal to Mr Museveni for a long time and generously contributing to his vote pool and electing ruling party representatives at various levels.
But this trend changed in 2021 when the NRM party failed to outsmart the Opposition, recording a minimal 27.94 per cent (41,166 votes) for President Museveni against the lead Opposition party candidate, Mr Robert Kyagulanyi of NUP, who garnered a total of 103,782 votes (70.45 per cent) in the district. During the recently concluded presidential and parliamentary election this trend did not change. Mr Kyagulanyi defeated Mr Museveni in Luweero District with 81,976 votes (61.05 per cent) while the latter got 50,758 votes ( 37.80 per cent). The NUP party also won all the parliamentary seats and the district chairperson seat, as it did in 2021.