Many people who followed this by-election were shocked by the violence and military involvement in what was supposed to be a peaceful vote.
Even though police officers were present during campaigns and on voting day, it was the army and a special group called JATT (Joint Anti-Terrorism Taskforce) that took over the scene.
These soldiers were seen beating candidates, voters, and even journalists. Big army vehicles, known as mambas, were also seen inside polling stations.
Many people believe this scared voters and may be the reason why less than 50,000 people voted out of the 190,000 registered voters.
On the day of voting, some media houses pulled their journalists out of Kawempe North. This was after reports that security men were starting to attack reporters.
Other reports also said that people believed to be security agents went to some polling stations and destroyed voting materials, even while vote counting was still going on.
In the final results, Elias Nalukoola got around 17,000 votes, while Faridah Nambi received about 9,000 votes.
Nambi was not happy with the results. She first went to court asking for a vote recount, but that was rejected. She then took another case to court, accusing Nalukoola and the Electoral Commission of cheating and breaking election laws.
Nambi told the court that votes from 14 polling stations were not counted. She also said that Nalukoola campaigned on the day of the election, which is not allowed under Ugandan law. These two points were the main reasons why the court made its final decision.
In the ruling, the judge, Benard Namanya, said the following on page 49 of the court judgment:
“This court has decided to cancel the election of Elias Nalukoola as the Member of Parliament for Kawempe North for two main reasons:
1. Over 16,600 voters in Kawempe North, including Nambi, were denied the chance to vote. This greatly affected the final results.
2. Nalukoola personally campaigned on election day at two polling stations: Mbogo Primary School Playground and Kazo Angola LCI Office. This is against the law under Section 100 of the Parliamentary Elections Act.”
Because of these two issues, the court cancelled Nalukoola’s win and declared the Kawempe North seat vacant.
However, the judge did not declare Nambi the winner either. Instead, he told the Electoral Commission to organize a fresh election for the area.
After the ruling, the Electoral Commission said it would not appeal. But Nalukoola has already said that he is taking the case to the Court of Appeal. This means he will remain in Parliament until the appeal is heard and a final decision is made.
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