MASAKA VOTE RECOUNT : The Masaka Chief Magistrate’s Court has declared National Resistance Movement (NRM) candidate Justine Nameere as the duly elected Member of Parliament for Masaka City Woman following a three-day vote recount.
Chief Magistrate Albert Asiimwe announced that Nameere secured 25,502 votes, defeating National Unity Platform (NUP) candidate Rose Nalubowa, who obtained 23,176 votes.
The recount followed a petition filed by Nameere challenging the initial election outcome of the January 15 polls. In her application, Nameere asked the court to order a recount of the cancelled votes and have the disputed results added to her tally, arguing that she was the rightful winner.
Earlier, the Electoral Commission had declared Nalubowa the winner with 25,443 votes, while Nameere was placed second with 20,324 votes. The incumbent Masaka City Woman MP, Juliet Kakanda of the Democratic Front (DF), came third with 6,343 votes.
Nameere accused the Masaka City Returning Officer, Ahmed Nadduli, of maliciously denying her victory by deliberately omitting results from polling stations where she had won overwhelmingly. She argued that these omissions materially affected the final outcome of the election.
According to the Electoral Commission, results from at least seven polling stations were cancelled after discrepancies were discovered, including instances where the number of votes exceeded the number of registered voters and declaration of results forms contained irregularities such as crossed figures. The cancellations followed complaints from rival candidates who questioned the credibility of the affected documents.
However, through her legal team led by Anthony Baziira, Nameere maintained that the returning officer failed to tally results from all 314 polling stations in Masaka City. She claimed that results from at least 11 polling stations where she had obtained significant margins were excluded.
Nameere submitted copies of the disputed declaration of results forms to court, arguing that the cancellations unfairly reduced her vote tally in favour of the NUP candidate. She further told court that her concerns during the tallying process were ignored by the returning officer, forcing her to seek judicial intervention for a recount and re-evaluation of the ballots cast.
