Mukono by-election tests Mengo muscle

Kampala

Democratic Party candidate Betty Nambooze Bakireke goes into today’s Mukono North by-election against Rev. Bakaluba Mukasa of the National Resistance Movement in a contest which observers say could provide clues on whether Buganda’s vote could swing next year’s election.

Ms Nambooze is running on a pro-Buganda Kingdom ticket. “We have beefed up our team of polling agents. There are also efforts by the Inter-Party Cooperation coordinated by [Soroti Woman, FDC] MP Alice Alaso to observe the elections. The Buganda government has also supported me and the youth of Nkoba za Mbogo will be among my polling agents,” she told Daily Monitor yesterday.

The by-election is being held after the Supreme Court upheld the Court of Appeal’s confirmation of the finding that Rev. Bakaluba 2006 win here was fraught with electoral malpractices.

This time, Ms Nambooze said, “There are also local efforts all geared at ensuring that we win by a big margin. It is unfortunate the army and police have been deployed heavily on the orders of President Museveni and this is likely to affect the voter turn-up.”

She added: “They are now deploying to intimidate voters but we have sent out a team to mobilise [our] voters to turn up in big numbers.” Rev. Bakaluba never answered our phone calls yesterday. It has been a campaign that has twice drawn in the President over the space of two days. It could be the first test case of whether the cooling of relations between the central government and Mengo, the seat of Buganda, could impact the 2011 result.

In 2006, the Electoral Commission declared Rev. Bakaluba the winner in Mukono North with 22,680 votes, 448 more than DP’s Nambooze who garnered 22,232 votes.
“The Electoral Commission must prove its worth in supervising the elections. The havoc reported in Mukono mounted by Maj. Kakooza Mutale is a big shame for the NRM government. He has been intimidating voters,” said Mr Ken Lukyamuzi of the opposition Conservative Party.

IPC backing
The Inter-Party Cooperation (IPC), a loose grouping of four opposition political parties, including CP, has backed Ms Nambooze. “We have mobilised our youth who are knowledgeable about manning elections and we have deployed five youths each per polling station to monitor Nambooze’s votes. All our MPs, the DP president, shall be monitoring the elections and reporting malpractices to the tactical coordinator,” Mr Sulaiman Kidandali, DP’s deputy organising secretary said.
The Electoral Commission spokesman, Charles Ochola, promised a free and fair election. “When we put in place everything to ensure that the voting takes place, the ball remains in the court of the voters,” Mr Ochola said.
Both the ruling party and the opposition have thrown considerable resources into this contest. Yesterday, diplomatic sources, who preferred anonymity, told Daily Monitor that a team of ambassadors will be in Mukono North today.

Locally, Democracy Monitoring Group, (DEMGroup), a local election monitoring consortium, has also deployed a team to monitor the Mukono elections. Speaking from Mukono, DEMGroup’s specialist on political matters, Mr Henry Kafunjo Twinomujune, said yesterday that the situation was calm. “Considering the high stakes in these elections, maybe the heavy [security] deployment can be justified as long as they don’t vote,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mengo refused to say whether Ms Nambooze’s relationship with Buganda – the largest voting bloc in the country – could affect the result. “All I can say is that we look forward to a peaceful election. We hope voters are mature enough to make the [right] choices,” said the kingdom spokesperson, Mr Charles Peter Mayiga.

Police spokesperson for Kampala Metropolitan area, which covers Mukono area, Mr Henry Kalulu, said: “We want peace throughout the voting exercise and we cannot take chances in elections. We are also getting information that the kanyamas (musclemen for hire) are planning to come and guard the votes but that is the work of police and not them.”