EC chief Badru Kiggundu (R) congratulates Mr Mwiru soon after the declaration. PHOTO BY D. Wanyera
Jinja – The ruling National Resistance Movement party yesterday conceded defeat in the Jinja East by-election blaming it on lack of unity and intrigue within the party.
The NRM lost the seat to FDC’s candidate, Mr Paul Mwiru in the hotly contested by-election bringing to two, the number of constituencies the ruling party has lost in three months.
Last November NRM lost the Luweero Woman MP seat to DPcandidate, Ms Brenda Nabukenya. “We are not complaining, we lost genuinely and it is ourselves to blame for the internal fights within the party,” Mr Michael Kasede, the Jinja NRM party administrative Secretary told Saturday Monitor by telephone yesterday.
Mr Mwiru, contesting for the third time, won the Jinja East constituency by-election Thursday poll, beating his closest opponent Nathan Igeme Nabeta of NRM by 1,701 votes. Mwiru polled 7,758 against Nabeta’s 6,057 votes.
The contest attracted four candidates but the competition was largely between NRM and FDC that the two leaders of the parties, President Museveni and Dr Kizza Besigye, camped in Jinja on the last day of the campaigns.
Fixing events
Mr Mwiru was declared winner by the returning officer Ms Flavia Mujulizi at 10.10pm Thursday in the presence of the Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Mr Nandala Mafabi and EC boss Eng. Badru Kiggundu. The seat fell vacant after the High Court in Jinja nullified Mr Nabeta’s election on grounds that his academic papers were wanting and voter bribery on February 18.
Shadow Attorney General and Bugweri County MP Abdu Katuntu yesterday said NRM cannot win any by-election. “The NRM has lost it all and they will not win any other by-election. This is a countrywide issue, the people are tired,” Mr Katuntu said, adding that the growing opposition even in areas where the NRM has been dominant show a fast-fading support for the “corrupt government.”
FDC attributed the victory to vigilance on polling day, cohesion within the party and mobilisation. “The high level of vigilance at the polling stations is what guaranteed our win,” Maj. Gen. Mugusha Muntu, the party’s national mobiliser said.
The contest
The retired army general single-handedly arrested Butalejja RDC Balyaino Gulume, who FDC supporters suspected was ferrying pre-ticked ballots in his official car. Gen. Muntu drove him to Jinja Police Station and witnessed his detention before returning to monitor the polling activities.
The division in the Jinja NRM branch, which was witnessed during the 2011 Jinja mayoral polls in which the NRM candidate Majidu Batambuze lost to DP’s Baswari Kezaala, also replayed in Thursday’s election. Officials from Nabeta’s camp openly accused those from Batambuze’s of supporting Mr Mwiru.
The Nabeta camp also attributes the loss to disagreement between the Jinja District NRM leadership and the municipality.
Mr James Musazi, an NRM youth mobiliser, says the campaign managers ignored the services of old cadres in the district. “I have been in these campaigns for long. However, I was surprised that nobody contacted me, not even people like the former Jinja mayor Steven Nsubuga and the former Jinja NRM district chairperson Sam Muwumba, who are good mobilisers,” Mr Musazi says. “This was a miscalculation that led to Igeme’s loss,’’ he adds.
By Dalton Wanyera, Daily Monitor
