NRM polls: Uhuru concedes defeat

By Umaru Kashaka   

The Kisenyi II parish councillor and National Resistance Movement (NRM) chairperson for Kampala Central, Salim Uhuru has conceded defeat in the recent local council party elections for Kampala Central.

Uhuru told New Vision on Thursday morning that he decided to acknowledge defeat for the sake of party unity.

"I am not trailing Muhammed Kibedi in this election because I have incontrovertible evidence that I won. But for the sake of my party, I am not going to petition or come as an independent," he said on phone.

He stressed: "It would be like covering my party in dirt. So I have decided to accept that Kibedi won and he is the NRM flag bearer for the position of Kampala Central division LC3 chairperson."

The chairman of NRM electoral commission, Dr Tanga Odoi on Wednesday announced provisional results showing Kibedi had polled 3,213 of the votes cast against Uhuru's 2190.

However, before and after the results were announced, Uhuru had protested them, saying the vote had been marred by rigging and violence.

Odoi is this afternoon expected to announce the final results.

"Results are always provisional for as long as they are not 100%. I can tell you results in Kampala are about 96% and what I have announced can give you a trend that this person is likely to win overall," Odoi said.

"With regards to Kibedi and Uhuru, we have declared that there are no results for Mengo parish and Kisenyi III so all results in indicate Kibedi is leading with that margin (1023)," he added.

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