Godfrey Aine Kaguta, the younger brother to President Yoweri Museveni’s and Anifa Kawooya Bangirana have won ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party flags for parliamentary race in Sembabule district.
On Wednesday evening, Kaguta and Kawooya were declared winners of the NRM polls for Mawogola North and West constituencies respectively which were postponed twice due to electoral violence.
George William Katokoozi, the NRM elections registrar for Sembabule declared Kaguta aka Sodo the winner with a total of 17,343 votes – beating Foreign Affairs minister Sam Kutesa’s daughter, Shartsi Musherure Kutesa who polled 16,104 votes and Salim Kisekka who emerged last with 4,274 votes.
Katokoozi also declared Kawooya the NRM parliamentary flag bearer for Mawogola West constituency after defeating Joseph Ssekabiito with 15,923 votes against 13,143 votes. The two were competing for the party flag in a newly created constituency that was approved by parliamentary in July.
Kawooya is the incumbent Sembabule Woman MP while Ssekabiito is also the MP for Mawogola county constituency.
On the hand, Mary Begumisa was also declared flag bearer for the Sembabule Woman MP race after defeating her three competitors, Jovanice Twongyeirwe and Phoebe Arinaitwe. Begumisa secured 73,940 votes Twongyeirwe got 16, 448 votes while Arinaitwe garnered 11,011 votes.
The Deputy IGP Sabiiti Muzeyi and the NRM EC Chairman Dr Tanga Odoi pitched campe in the District to directly oversee the elections. A force of at least 2,000 personnel was deployed in Sembabule district to man the elections in the two constituencies. The security personnel comprised of police and army were deployed in nine sub-counties.
Sembabule resident district commissioner Nickson Niwagaba says that they had deployed at least 200 police officers in each of the nine sub-counties to prevent eventualities similar to the ones that led to the cancellation of the polls on September 4, when violence erupted in many parts of the district.
Entrance into Sembabule district was restricted, with security teams searching all vehicles and demanding for National ID cards from all occupants following claims of non-residents being ferried into the area with an intention to rig the election.
Dr Tanga Odoi says they have asked the returning officers to gathers evidence about attempts of malpractice and other irregularities which they will use to reprimand the culprits.