NRM’s Gideon Mujungu Wins Busongora South By-Election

KASESE, UGANDA: Mr. Gideon Mujungu Thembo of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) reclaimed his Parliamentary seat after he was Thursday evening declared winner of the Busongora South By-Election.

Mr Mujungu polled 12,088 votes against his main challenger, Mr Jackson Mbaju of the Opposition National Unity Platform who had 6,866 votes.

The Forum for Democratic Change-FDC candidate Aloysius Kighema Baguma came third polling 5,564 votes, while Benadet Businge of the Democratic Party-DP polled 84 votes only.(NUP) who polled 6,866.

Other candidates who ran as independent David Mulindwa Isimwa got 2,093 votes and Doreen Izaagire polled only 32 votes.

Mr Mujungu had been thrown out of Parliament after the Court of Appeal on June 22 nullified his 2021 victory and ordered the Electoral Commission (EC) to organize fresh polls in Busongora South Constituency in Kasese District.

During the general election last year, Mr Mujungu won by a margin of 79 votes. His immediate rival Mr Mbaju who was then Independent, obtained 7,522 votes in a race that had 10 candidates.

The victory for Mujungu also shows that NRM has taken over Kasese which had for a long time been an FDC stronghold.

However, members of the opposition are not happy saying the exercise was largely militarized. The former leader of opposition Winnie Kiiza, who was backing Mbaju says soldiers were largely involved in controlling the exercise with some of them voting even when they were not in the registers.

She also decried police’s action to arrest Kighema when the candidate stormed the Katunguru Primary School polling station after his agents notified him about some irregularities. The candidate was later in the afternoon released by police.

Ernest Kasoke, the Chief Mobilizer for Mbaju was also reportedly arrested by armed men for unknown reasons. Saulo Maate, the Kasese district FDC chairperson says they will prepare to challenge the outcome.