Ms Lydia Wanyoto has been declared the National Resistance Movement (NRM) flag bearer for the Mbale City Woman MP seat, beating off tight competition from incumbent Honourable Connie Galiwango and two other ladies Ms Shadia Luwungule and Jalia Namasaba.
When the NRM held Primaries to select parliamentary flag bearers, all did not go as planned as results in various constituencies were not announced due to different reasons. In areas of Namutumba and Iganga, elections were postponed due to the death of either contestant or polling agents, while in the district of Ssembabule, acts of violence were cause for postponement. The business hub of eastern Uganda, Mbale district, was not spared of NRM chaos as allegations of vote-rigging forced the NRM electoral commission chairperson Dr. Tanga Odoi to suspend announcement of results for the district woman MP election.
During the September 4th polls, both the Wanyoto and Galiwango camps had declaration forms with contradicting numbers of votes which led Connie Galiwango to accuse Wanyoto of conniving with the Mbale NRM EC to rig her out of the polls as a punishment for voting against the amendment of article 102 B, an allegation the NRM Women’s League chairperson strongly denies. Another unfortunate event on September 4th was that Ms. Wanyoto’s driver allegedly tore the EC’s Declaration Forms from the sub-counties of Lwasso and Bukonde which forced the EC to hold fresh elections in 58 cells today, 8th October, a decision the EC took close to a month to decide.
On September 28th, on top of announcing that fresh elections would be held in 58 cells, the NRM EC also released provisional results that put Ms. Wanyoto in pole position, a decision the incumbent did not agree with thus boycotting today’s polls, and declaring that she will be contesting as an independent in 2021.
Nonetheless, elections were held today and the final tally indicated that Ms Wanyoto garnered a staggering 36,281 votes with Connie Galiwango raising 19,113 votes. Ms Namasaba Jalia managed 2,824 whereas Luwungule Shadia raised 1,506 votes.
