Kampala, Uganda: Hajjat Faridah Nambi, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) candidate who recently challenged the outcome of the Kawempe North by-election, on Monday picked nomination forms to contest again for the same seat in the forthcoming 2026 general elections.
Nambi, who lost to opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) candidate Erias Luyimbazi Nalukoola in the March 2025 by-election, is now hoping to ride on a court victory that nullified the result over irregularities.
“Faridah Nambi cannot be separated from the Kawempe North constituency, and this time round, we are taking that seat,” she told reporters shortly after picking the forms from the NRM Electoral Commission on Monday afternoon.
Nalukoola had won the by-election with 17,939 votes against Nambi’s 9,058, but Nambi petitioned the High Court, citing electoral malpractices including voter disenfranchisement and illegal campaigning on polling day.
Justice Bernard Namanya ruled in her favour, stating that 16,640 registered voters were disenfranchised and found Nalukoola culpable of campaigning on polling day, leading to the nullification of the election and ordering of a fresh poll.
While Nalukoola has since appealed the ruling at the Court of Appeal, no decision has yet been delivered.
Nambi, who previously contested for the Kampala Woman MP seat in 2021 (losing to NUP’s Shamim Malende), said her decision to recontest is about commitment to the people of Kawempe.
The nomination forms she picked are part of the NRM’s internal party process ahead of the primaries set for June 16. Voting will be conducted by lining up behind candidates, a practice that has drawn criticism from civil society and opposition parties for lacking ballot secrecy.
Nambi, however, defended the method: “What I want to say about lining up is that that is one of the most transparent procedures in any given election. Transparency is a part and parcel of any good governance in our electoral processes. Yes. So, I welcome it,” she said.
Political observers view the rerun as a major test for both NRM and NUP in Kampala’s increasingly contested urban battlegrounds.
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