The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Two aspiring candidates have boycotted the National Resistance Movement -NRM residual primaries held today citing gross irregularities in the process.
The NRM had planned to repeat primaries in four out of the nine villages in Sembabule town council and in two polling stations in Rugushuulu sub-county after the process was reportedly interrupted by the chaos that delayed the declaration of final results in the initial process a week ago.
But two of the contenders, Ronald Nsubuga and Benon Burora, who were contesting for NRM flags for positions of chairperson in Sembabule town council and Rugushuulu sub-county respectively are aggrieved by what they describe as unfairness in party internal processes.
Nsubuga who was among the candidates in Sembabule town council says he has lost trust in the party’s internal processes thereby choosing to withdraw his candidature. Nsubuga has officially notified the NRM Electoral Commission about his decision asking them to delete him from the list of contestants in the party primaries. He was competing against the Jude Kasekende, the incumbent town council chairperson and Nzuurulu Bainomugisha.
He argues that his decision has been premised on the outright irregularities that included open-day voter bribery, manipulation of voter registers and intimidation that manifested in the botched polls, arguing that he does not have confidence that the party can reign over the perpetrators whom he says are high profile leaders in Sembabule district.
According to him, participating in the planned residual primaries will mean legitimizing the earlier irregularities arguing that he has considered to step aside of the NRM internal process and instead contest as an independent candidate.
Similarly, Benon Burola one of the contestants in Rugushulu sub county has also resolved to boycott polls in the two villages arguing that it is a plot intended to rig him out of the race.
According to the Sembabule district NRM registrar, two out of the 27 villages in Rugushulu sub-county did not participate due to the violence that erupted in the process and as a result, the commission plans to hold a repeat of the primaries in the affected areas.
However, Burora is refuting having fresh elections arguing he has learnt of a plot to falsify results in favour of the candidate who lost. Despite him leading in the preliminary tallies, Burora argues the NRM Electoral Commission tactically cancelled results for the two villages after detecting that he was headed for the victory.
Preliminary results indicate that he had gathered 3,429 votes slightly higher than his competitor Fred Karakure who had 3,357 votes. He has accused George William Katokoozi, the Sembabule district NRM election registrar of conspiring with his political opponents to manufacture results in favour of the losing candidate which he says will not tolerate.
Charles Turyahimbisa, the Sembabule Deputy NRM election registrar has appealed to the aggrieved aspirants not to rush their decisions arguing that they have forwarded the complaints to the party electoral commission secretariat for further management.
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