By Frank Kamuntu
Kampala: According to our reporters who fully covered the hotly contested and long-awaited Sembabule primary elections of National Resistance Movement, saw President Museveni’s brother Godfrey Aine Kaguta and Ms Anifa Kawooya scooping the victory of party’s flagship for Mawogola North and Mawogola West constituencies respectively.
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Mr Kaguta who seemed to be not so hot in this race ended up trouncing his closest rival after polling 17,343 votes (46 per cent) while Shartis Musherure Kutesa, the daughter of Foreign Affairs Minister, Sam Kuteesa dubbed the outgoing Mp for this constituency, polled16,104 votes and the third contender Salim Kisekka polled 4,272 votes (11.3 per cent).
It is against that background that the NRM district registrar George William Katokoozi at it approached 9 pm, announced, “I, therefore, declare Aine, who has polled the highest number of votes, the flag bearer for the Mawogola constituency.”
Something worth noting is that Mawogola North constituency has 146 villages and five sub-counties while Mawogola West has 127 villages and three sub-counties and in among these, long-serving legislator from 2001, the Sembabule Woman MP, Hon Anifa Bangirana Kawooya polled 15,923 votes (54.8 per cent) leaving her rival Joseph Ssekabiito with 13,143 votes (45.2 per cent) and she was declared the party flag bearer for Mawogola West.
There was another election that a couple of media didn’t report about since voters were not so interested in and that is of Mary Begumisa who was competing with her rivals Jovanice Tondwiire and Phoebe Arinaitwe.
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In this election, Mary Begumisa was declared the winner for Sembabule District Woman MP flag, following a collection of 73,940 votes while her closest rival Jovanice Tondwiire collected 16,448 votes leaving Phoebe Arinaitwe with 1,111 votes.
Grievance
By the close of Wednesday Dr Tanga Odoi had received a petition from Shartis Kuteesa Musherure challenging Sodo’s victory as NRM flag bearer for Mawogola North, he, however, requested her to give other candidates copies of the petition.
READ ALSO: You Will Vote After Eliminating Violence: Tanga Odoi Suspends Mawogola Elections Again
“I believe we have not been defeated. We have been cheated, but many times, the world over, we know that we should pick up our pieces, fight on and live another day to serve our country,” Musherure said immediately after the declaration of Sodo’s victory.
“So I will be submitting my petition covering 6 villages where I have major concerns and seeking the NRM Electoral Commission’s new judgement. I would like to assure my supporters that this is not the end of our journey,” she vowed.
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However, when asked whether she will consider standing on an independent ticket in the 2021 general elections in case her petition fails to yield results, Shartis said all options remained on the table, “I will let you know what my decision is on that, “I wouldn’t like to say anything about that right now.” Musherure said
Shartis added she got zero elections at 6 polling stations which were shocking to her. “It’s impossible to not have at least some number of voters. So, a zero vote means that we did not vote and therefore we need to know why,” she added.
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At Kikoma village which is one of the polling stations where she garnered zero votes, Musherure said she had polled 345 votes before NRM Electoral Commission chairman Dr Tanga Odoi nullified the results and ordered for a fresh vote adding that her supporters had already left the polling station by the time Tanga Odoi nullified the earlier results.
“So, I have written my petition to Dr Tanga Odoi’s office and I will seek his judgement on that,” she said.
Violence In The Election
The election which was supposed to be held on September 4, was postponed twice over ugly scenes of violence between supporters of both Godfrey Aine Kaguta and Shartis Kutesa Musherure who are both close to the First family. To prevent any occurrence of the same, top security officials met on Monday to discuss ways of ensuring the election is peaceful.
Consequently, the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Maj Gen.Muzeeyi Sabiiti and the CID Director, AIGP Grace Akullo camped in the area to oversee security.
On the other hand, the top NRM electoral commission chief Dr Tanga Odoi also personally camped in the area to monitor the situation in the volatile district.
Earlier, Police mounted several roadblocks at all roads leading to the districts to prevent non- residents from taking part in the election after reports that some party members from other districts had been ferried to vote.
Voting was by lining up, as was the case with other areas where elections for the ruling NRM party flag bearers, and just like previous elections, Ministry of Health COVID-19 preventive measures were not observed either Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) set by President Museveni himself.
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