Kawempe by-election: We are ready to beat you in court, NUP tells NRM

The leadership of the country’s largest Opposition political party, the National Unity Platform (NUP), has hit back at the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party, saying they are ready to face them in court should they challenge the results of the Kawempe North by-election.

The election, held last Thursday, saw NUP’s flag bearer, Erias Nalukoola Luyimbazi, declared the winner with 17,764 votes.

Mr David Lewis Rubongoya, the NUP secretary general, told Monitor that they possess sufficient evidence to demonstrate that chaos during the hotly contested poll was orchestrated by NRM-sponsored goons.

“Let them go to court; we shall challenge them with the evidence. They are the ones who commanded goons to attack polling stations, arrest our polling agents, and instil fear in our people by involving the army in everything. We are not scared of them, we shall expose them in court,” Mr Rubongoya said.

The turbulent by-election saw the returning officer declare Mr Nalukoola the winner with 17,764 votes, representing 64.37 percent of the total votes cast. The NRM candidate, Ms Faridah Nambi, who secured 8,593 votes (31.2 percent), came second.

Reacting to the Electoral Commission’s announcement at the weekend, Mr Richard Todwong, the NRM secretary general, alleged that NUP supporters had brutalised NRM supporters, leaving many injured and preventing several from voting.

“We are compiling statistics of our supporters who were attacked by elements opposing our candidate. Many of our supporters, especially women and the elderly, were intimidated and prevented from casting their votes, effectively disenfranchising them,” he said.

Adding: “Security personnel, whose role was to maintain peace and tranquillity before, during, and after the by-election, were deliberately provoked by the Opposition. In response, they overreacted and, in some cases, used excessive force to arrest voters. We will not accept this level of disenfranchisement and will legally challenge the declaration of results.”

Mr Robert Kyagulanyi, the NUP president, refuted NRM’s allegations, insisting they were the true victims of election malpractice.

“It is shameless for a despot who abducted our agents and supporters, beat up our people, spent days bribing voters, deployed mambas inside polling stations, and orchestrated raids on voting centres. They even altered several results declaration forms to give themselves extra votes—and we still defeated them,” Mr Kyagulanyi said.

“He [Museveni] is shocked that despite spending billions on these efforts, Ugandans continue to reject him outright. He even forced young people from so-called skilling centres to vote, but I believe most of them voted for us,” Mr Kyagulanyi further said.

“This is the same Museveni who recently, without shame, claimed that we rigged one million votes in the last election—after he blatantly stole our victory. I wrote to him, challenging him to an independent audit of that election, but he has never responded. We must pray for our nation, and more importantly, for our children, so that none of them grows into such...,” he added.