Hoima District NRM registrar, Joseph Kutegeka, has been arrested for allegedly declaring two different candidates as winners for the same parliamentary ticket, which sparked off confusion and protests.
Kutegeka was picked up on Monday night from the National Resistance Movement (NRM) offices in Kyadondo, Kampala, where the party’s top leadership had summoned him to respond to complaints arising from the recent party primary elections in Hoima district.
Detectives apprehended him at the NRM offices and whisked him away to an undisclosed police station, where he is currently being detained. Kutegeka is accused of declaring two winners for both the Hoima Woman MP seat and the Bugahya County MP seat, which has caused disputes among candidates and their supporters.
In the Bugahya county race, the contest was between Pius Wakabi, the incumbent MP, and Amlan Tumusiime, the former resident district commissioner (RDC) for Kikuube. Kutegeka first declared Tumusiime as the winner, but after Wakabi’s supporters protested, he subsequently announced Wakabi as the winner, leading to confusion and tension.
A similar incident occurred in the Hoima Woman MP race, where Kutegeka initially announced Beatrace Wembabazi, also known as Teacher Mummy, as the winner with 19,598 votes (44.8%).
Her closest rival, Harriet Businge, the incumbent MP, had polled 13,844 votes (37.8%), while a third candidate, Susan Asiimwe, received 10,225 votes (23.3%). However, shortly after the declaration, Kutegeka reversed his position and announced Businge as the winner, assigning her the same vote count, 19,598 (44.8%) that he had initially attributed to Wembabazi.
The conflicting declarations have left supporters of both candidates bewildered. The disputed results were immediately reported to the NRM National Electoral Commission chairperson, Dr Tanga Odoi, and formal petitions have since been filed.
The Albertine regional police received directives from the Hoima district security committee, chaired by resident district commissioner (RDC) Rogers Mbabazi, to arrest Kutegeka, who had gone into hiding after the incident.
According to RDC Mbabazi, Kutegeka’s arrest, along with that of his data entrants, is intended to aid investigations into the motives behind the conflicting declarations.
“You cannot declare two candidates as winners, yet you know that the winner must be one. The police must investigate the exact motives behind that as security,” said Mbabazi. Investigations into the matter are ongoing.
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