Residents and political observers in Bugisu Sub-region have questioned why the process of declaring the winner of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party primary election for the Mbale City Woman member of Parliament seat is taking a slow pace.

The declaration of the results was supposed to take place last Friday but due to violence, which was orchestrated by Mr Umar Nangoli’s supporters at the tally centre at Mbale City headquarters, the exercise was suspended.

Mr Nangoli was one of the MP aspirants for the NRM flag for the seat of Northern City Division.  His supporters turned wild on the fateful day after the returning officer, Mr Boniface Wamunga, declared his rival Mr Seth Wambede Massa as winner.

Mr Innocent Dibba, a political analyst, told Daily Monitor yesterday that the delay to declare the winner for the Woman MP seat has caused anxiety and raised distrust among the electorate. Advertisement

“If the process delays, the voters will be forced to think the results are being doctored. This will definitely divide the party further and cost them in the general election,” he said.

The Woman MP seat results were referred to the chairperson of NRM party’s electoral commission, Mr Tanga Odoi, last Sunday for recounting.
This came after Mr Wamunga failed to declare the winner between two main contenders.

The two contenders are Ms Connie Galiwango, the incumbent Woman MP of Mbale District, and Ms Lydia Wanyoto, the chairperson of NRM Women League.
Other aspirants were Ms Jalia Namasaba and Ms Shadia Luwungule.

Mr Isaac Walimbwa, a resident of Mission Cell in Northern City Division, said electoral officials at the NRM headquarters are exhibiting incompetency after they failed to announce the winner.

“The only role they had is to re-tally the votes, which cannot take a day but unfortunately, it is now five days, we are still waiting for the same results,” Mr Walimbwa said.
The NRM spokesperson, Mr Rogers Mulindwa, said he is also not sure when the exercise of re-tallying the results will be completed.

“They have started recounting the votes in all areas that had contestation but I cannot tell how long it will take because some areas have more polling stations than others,” he said.

However, the Mbale district registrar, Mr Wamunga on Wednesday, confirmed that they sent all declaration forms.

“We are still waiting for official communication but I got information that one of the officials from that EC will be visiting Mbale today (Thursday), he said.

Mbale city has two city divisions of Bungokho and Industrial with a total of 388 polling stations.

Ms Galiwango said sub county village and Sub county NRM Registrars Lwasso, Bukonde and Namabasa should be investigated over what he called thuggery.

“In three sub -counties the registrars gave abnormal votes in favour of another candidate,”Ms Galiwango said.

But, Mbale District NRM Registrar, Mr Wamunga, earlier said president Museveni directive of allowing everyone to vote is that reason why more people voted than the actual number in their registers.

Ms Wanyoto, told Daily Monitor that her opponent should accept the defeat because she won the race with a landslide after getting a block vote in the three sub-counties including Nauyo Bugema town council.

 “Am strong and confident that we won this race. I call upon the NRM supporters to remain calm. My non-confrontational approach is informed by our real party ideology,” she said.

 Earlier, during a press conference at the Command Centre near Wash and Wills, Ms Wanyoto said results from her tally centre indicate that she got 39448 votes and her main rival, Ms Galiwango garnered 21543 votes. Ms Galiwango disputes the results.

 Police in Mbale city have also said they started opened a general Enquiry file (GEF) over an alleged mismanaging the party elections.

 The Elgon Region Police Spokesperson, Mr Rogers Taitika said they have launched investigations into the matter after getting complaints from the public and aspiring candidates.

“We have reports that some voters were blocked from accessing polling stations, changing of results and in some polling stations chased away,”Mr Taitika said.

 According to Mr Taitika, some of the NRM registrars, who have since recorded statements includes, Mr Osibati Wazemba, registrar of Bukonde Sub County, Mr Hassan Mutoto, 31, registrar of Lwasso Sub County and Mr Stephen Walimbwa, registrar of Namabasa Sub County. 

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