NRM defends Kayunga win

The NRM secretary general, Mr. Richard Todwong, said the party won the election and so the Opposition should move on and try its hand at winning future elections. 

“Whenever there is competition, there must be a winner. We have defeated NUP (National Unity Platform) massively,” Mr. Todwong declared. 

“They should accept, concede defeat and plan better next time. They should stop crying foul about it. Elections are not conducted to make NUP or FDC (Forum for Democratic Change) win,” Mr. Todwong added.

In the just concluded elections, the Electoral Commission (EC) declared NRM’s Mr. Andrew Muwonge winner of the hotly contested election with 31,830 votes. His closest challenger, according to the official results, was NUP’s Harriet Nakwedde came in a close second with 31,308 votes. 

NUP, however, refuses to take the result lying and says the election was marred by irregularities such as vote tampering, violence, security operative stuffing ballot boxes for the NRM thereby effectively ensuring the outcome of the vote count.

Mr. Alex Mufumbiro, the deputy NUP spokesperson, said: “We know that NRM has always tried to hoodwink and claim to be strong even when they are not. In January, after they stole the people’s mandate, they tried to tell us that we had lost, but we know they don’t have all the declaration results forms.” 

On Monday, NUP declared that it will go to court to challenge the outcome of the Kayunga by-election. 

“They [voters] turned up in small numbers because of the intimidation that was there. And, whoever turned up to vote, was voting an umbrella. That win alone shows that our work was done,” Nakwedde insisted. 

“She is going to court, not so much because she believes in the courts of law but it is to say, “How have you won?” The DR forms are here and they are very clear. She is doing this for the court to also count. Maybe they have a better calculator than that of (EC chairperson) Byabakama,” NUP spokesperson Joel Ssenyonyi said. 

The EC said that it’s the nature of democracy to allow for such grievances and Ms. Nakawedde has a right to resolve such grievances in court. 

“They are within their rights. They are doing the right thing because it is a peaceful way of finding a solution to something they think is not right,” the Electoral Commission’s chairperson, Paul Bukenya said.