Ssekikubo loses Sembabule battle

Nationwide

Last night a dejected Theodore Ssekikubo, MP for Lwemiyaga and a thorn in the side of two senior ruling party members, was the latest NRM adherent to stare controversial defeat in the face.

With feelings running high in the polarised mid-western Sembabule District, Mr Ssekikubo was expected to reject the results announced by area National Resistance Movement registrar, Salim Kulembera, declaring Mr Patrick Nkalubo the winner.

Rival factions
This was one contest which pitted Mr Ssekikubo’s faction of the ruling party in the district against a group led by Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa.
There is no love lost between the two bitter rivals in a long-running quest to establish political dominance here. Mr Ssekikubo has taken that quest to Parliament where he has accused the minister of being corrupt.

Similarly, the Lwemiyaga MP has been locked in battle with Security Minister Amama Mbabazi who doubles as NRM secretary general, a man he also denounces as corrupt.

Mr Ssekikubo’s faction lost with Ms Joy Kabatsi coming behind incumbent MP Ms Anifa Kawooya, in the race for woman MP flag bearer. The Kabatsi situation is saddled with the controversy of an order in which court had directed that this particular election does not proceed on grounds that Ms Kawooya’s academic papers were questionable. To complete the picture, incumbent District Council chair Herman Ssentongo was declared loser to Dr Elly Muhumuza of the Kutesa group.

According to results read by Mr Kulembera, Mr Nkalubo polled 15,466 to Mr Ssekikubo’s 15,423 with Mr Agaba Aboomu trailing with 591. In Mawogola, Mr Kutesa got 39,884 against his main opponent, Isha Ntumwa’s 12,713 while Vincent Kimbugwe trailed with 1,980.

Mr Kulembera announced that Ms Kawooya got 48,434 against Ms Kabatsi’s 32,941. Mr Ssentongo got 34,525 to Dr Muhumuza’s 47,283. “They are announcing that Ssekikubo, Ssentongo and I have lost,” said Ms Kabatsi on phone last evening, “we really have to pray for this country because the rigging and the bribery are so bad…it is really terrible.” The other candidates could not be reached for comment on their known phone numbers.

Meanwhile, the ruling National Resistance Movement will receive two sets of delegates to its national conference, putting on hold a decision on hundreds of petitions received from candidates contesting results from last week’s primary elections.

Fate of petitions
As week-long protests at what several candidates denounced as a rigged election persisted, party deputy spokesperson, Mr Ofwono Opondo, told Daily Monitor that both incumbents at parliamentary, district council and sub-county levels and newly-elected flag bearers will participate in the conference. Mr Opondo said they expect between 12,000 and 13,000 delegates who start arriving on Friday at Mandela Stadium, Namboole.

“It will be the hand-over of the responsibilities from the old structures to the new flag bearers,” he said. Party electoral commissioner Lydia Wanyoto said petitions will be considered after the conference which ends on September 12. Ms Wanyoto said they plan fresh elections in constituencies where reasons for disputes are sustained.

“We have to make sure that we handle these petitions within the next one month so that our flag bearers are nominated on November 25,” she said. The party’s EC has faced criticism from President Museveni and other senior party members for failing to organise free and fair internal polls.

The NRM is running on a tight schedule to make sure its electoral activities end within the national Electoral Commission’s (EC) timetable. According to the national EC programme, presidential candidates will be nominated from October 25 - 26, while parliamentary candidates are to be nominated November 25 - 26.

In Kampala, the party elections machinery said it was suspending the process from the rescheduled Sunday elections. Returning officer Hussein Lukyamuzi said the exercise had been stopped to allow members attend the party special organs conference which opens today. “I can’t divide myself to supervise the counting of results and at the same time attend the conference. This is an important conference and even some of the contenders have to attend,” he said.

Mr Lukyamuzi said city lawyer Muhammad Nsereko was leading Kampala Central ahead of Mr Fred Bamwine and former housing minister Francis Babu. But Mr Bamwine has rejected the exercise and demanded a re-run.