Kawempe North goes to polls: What you need to know about tense byelection 

Residents of Kawempe North are headed to the polls on Thursday, March 13 to elect their parliamentary representative.

The by-election is to replace the former area legislator Muhammad Ssegirinya, who passed away in January this year.

Residents of Kazo Angola will also elect the City Council representative.

The numbers at a glance 

A total of 199,064 voters are registered for this byelection and will cast their ballots at 197 polling stations across the constituency.

Up to 10 candidates are on the ballot in the parliamentary by-election namely:

• Edward Stanley Engena - Independent 

• Henry Hasaka Mubiru - DP

• Muhammad Luwemba Luswa - Independent 

• Elias Luyimbazi Nalukoola - NUP 

• Sadat Mukiibi Aganaga - FDC 

• Hanifah Karadi - Independent 

• Ismael Musitwa - PPP

• Muhammad Mutazindwa Independent 

• Faridah Nambi Kigongo - NRM 

• Moses Nsereko - Independent 

Voting opened at 7 am and is supposed to close at 4 pm. Only those still in the queue after 4 pm will be allowed to vote.

During the pre-polling meeting on Wednesday, the Electoral Commission Chairman, Justice Simon Byabakama said polling materials were to be dispatched from the Commission’s warehouse in Banda at 3 am.

All candidates were invited to send agents to witness the dispatch and distribution.

Pre-ticked ballots 

On Wednesday afternoon, tension broke out, after officials of the opposition NUP raided a residential home in Namere cell in Kawempe where they said they busted a vote-rigging operation.

There, the officials including Leader of Opposition Joel Ssenyonyi, Secretary General David Lewis Rubongoya and candidate Nalukoola found armed men in UPDF uniforms and plain clothes plucking number plates off of vehicles.

The officials believe the men were pre-ticking ballots inside the house.

In a scuffle that ensued, two journalists were badly injured. Rubongoya also sustained a minor face injury, while the rear window of the LOP’s official vehicle was  shattered 

Byabakama however, dismissed these claims, stressing such ballots if any could only be fake.

“I wish somebody would give us a sample of those pre-ticked ballots; we shall outrightly prove that these are not our ballots. Ours are intact; they have not been distributed anywhere,” he said.

The EC chairman also condemned earlier violence that was perpetrated by security operatives assigned to the Joint Anti-terrorism Unit, describing this as “unfortunate and regrettable.”