A voter casts her vote in the Ruhaama county MP by-election. Courtesy photo.
National Resistance Movement (NRM) candidate Moses Kahima Mugabe has been declared winner of the Ruhaama by-election.
Mugabe polled 31,102 votes, beating his closest rival, Jackson Kabikire (Independent) who got 16,345 votes in a poll that was characterised by low voter turnout.
Peninah Beinomugisha, also an Independent candidate came third after garnering 2,103 votes while Vastine Orishaba trailed with 523 votes.
The ruling party has so far won 12 of the 15 by-elections so far held with the remaining three going to independents.
This time,all the four candidates, who contested in the race are members of the ruling party. Opposition parties didn’t participate.
The Ruhaama County MP seat fell vacant following the death of Beijukye William Zinkuratiire in November last year. The MP succumbed to Hepatitis B, a viral infection at Nsambya Hospital. Section 4 (c) of the Parliamentary Elections of 2001 election Act requires the Electoral Commission (EC) to organize a by-elections within sixty days upon the death of an MP.
The First Lady and Education minister Janet Museveni represented the same constituency in the 8th and 9th parliament.
Observers speak out
According to some monitoring observers, there was low turn, especially in the early hours of the day.
The Citizen’s Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU), also in its report, confirmed the low turn up.
“The turnout was low compared to Kaabong district Woman Parliamentary race which registered 80 per cent turn out,” said Crispy Kaheru, the cordinator of CCEDU.
However, CCEDU said the four candidates had agents almost at all the polling stations, adding that they were allowed to undertake their responsibilities freely.
Kaheru said they did not notice any uniformed security agents, a part from from the polling constables that were deployed at the polling stations.
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