Gunfire as FDC grabs Mbale seat

For the FDC, it was a victory attained through skilful campaigning just as it was a triumph largely aided by a fractured NRM party that could not agree on a single candidate.

Mbale

Forum for Democratic Change candidate Jack Wamanga Wamai was last night declared the new Mbale Municipality MP after humiliating six other candidates in a contest punctuated by gunshots. The FDC man polled 4,776 votes to edge the official NRM flag bearer, Mr John Wambogo, who garnered 3,875 votes. Dr Shinyabulo Mutende, an NRM Independent candidate came third with 1,199 votes. The other five candidates got less than 400 votes altogether.

A fractured NRM
For the FDC, it was a victory attained through skilful campaigning just as it was a triumph largely aided by a fractured NRM party that could not agree on a single candidate. Protesting alleged rigging in the primaries, Mr Mutende contested as an NRM Independent. Not even President Museveni’s late attempt to unite the camps bore fruit.

After FDC’s victory, supporters of NRM are likely to point fingers at themselves rather than at the FDC. Dr Mutende votes combined with Wambogo’s would have given the NRM 300 votes above what the FDC got but sharing them between two meant passing the victory button to Mr Wamanga Wamai.

“It is good news. I expected it because the people of Mbale are not fools. They have spoken. It is not my vote but a vote against a system which is rotten, riddled by corruption and this is the only way the people think the trend can be reversed,” said the victorious Wamanga. “I will do my best to turn this town from what it is now as a municipality to a city status.”

The seat was declared vacant after their youthful MP Wilfred Kajeke stepped down last year, saying he could not be part of a Parliament that was serving as a rubber stamp of the Executive and remained toothless in the face of spiraling corruption. But several theories abounded after his exit, from accusations of bribery to claims of ego wars among FDC strongmen in the east. A fear of a possible voter backlash had put the opposition party on tenterhooks—but that they were able to hold forte, will surely allow them pop the champagne. It was no ordinary forte—Mbale Municipality is seen as the pulse of the east.

A once-cleanest town in East Africa, Mbale has literally gone to the dogs with roads peeling, garbage choking it and other basic services trickling to near zero. But pundits still view it as the bastion of politics in the east—and controlling it obviously gives a party a psychological edge over opponents.

As Salaam Musumba, the FDC vice president for eastern Uganda put it: “It is a voice of voters to the NRM government that people deserve better. That they would rather vote the opposition and get nothing that vote for a ruling party and still get nothing,” she said. Earlier a minister’s guards shot at a crowd injuring one.