NRM admits opposition infiltrated party register during village polls

Kampala, Uganda: The ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) has acknowledged that members of opposition political groups infiltrated its voters’ register during this week’s LC1 grassroots party elections, sparking internal concerns and procedural disruptions in several parts of the country.

Mr. Emmanuel Dombo, the party’s Director for Information and Publicity told local media yesterday that while infiltration did occur, it was not significant enough to affect the overall outcomes of the primary elections held across 72,000 polling stations on Tuesday, May 6, 2025.

“One of the reasons we undertook this exercise was for local communities to identify such individuals and weed them out. If someone is not in the register, how did they get elected?” Dombo was quoted to have said during an interview with Monitor newspaper.

He added that the party does not expect 100 percent perfection in its internal democratic processes, but was confident that “any intrusions would not override the will of the majority.”

Chaos at Some Polling Stations Over “Strange Names”

At Villa Park Polling Station in Nsambya, Mr. Abdulatwib Nankunda, a presiding officer, confirmed suspending voting after eligible voters protested the presence of unfamiliar faces—some of whom had names listed in the register despite being unknown to the local community.

“People feared naming the intruders. There were too many strange faces, and tensions were rising,” Nankunda explained.

In Nakawa Division, newly elected vice chairman for veterans, Mr. Rudolf Abas, also flagged irregularities, saying he found names in the register that didn’t match the gender or identity of those who turned up.

“We have been infiltrated. Some male persons were registered as female. This confusion needs to be addressed by the party leadership,” Abas said.

However, despite the irregularities, the NRM Secretariat maintains that the elections were largely successful and insists that the party’s internal mechanisms will root out illegitimate office bearers in due course.

“This is part of democracy—exposing loopholes and fixing them,” Dombo said, adding that village-level scrutiny and upcoming reviews will “clean the register.”

Observers noted that in several areas, especially in urban divisions like Kampala and Wakiso, pockets of suspected opposition members participated in the process, a development insiders say is part of a broader grassroots strategy by rival political groups.