NUP pits Acio against Speaker Anita Among on road to 2026

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Leading Opposition political party, the National Unity Platform (NUP), says Florence Acio is its flag-bearer for the Bukedea Woman Member of Parliament seat.

Acio replaces Mercy Marion Alupo, who was disqualified for lacking the requisite qualifications to contest for the seat.

Party president Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu aka Bobi Wine, who is also the NUP presidential flag-bearer in the 2026 General Election, made the announcement at the party’s headquarters ahead of the commencement of his campaign tour in the Bunyoro region, where he is expected to hold rallies in Kibaale and Kagadi districts on Monday, October 20, 2025.

Currently, the seat is held by Speaker of Parliament Anita Among, who went through unopposed in the NRM party primaries earlier this year.

Alupo and two other candidates were disqualified following a suit filed in the Kampala High Court.

The petition, filed by Zipporah Akol, challenged the eligibility of the aspirants, alleging that they were not legally registered voters within the Bukedea district.

The case, registered as Cause No. 0198 of 2025, stemmed from decisions made by local Parish Tribunals in May 2025. According to documents filed by M/S Alaka & Co. Advocates and Ochieng Associated Advocates and Solicitors, the tribunals ruled to remove the names of the three aspirants from the official voters’ register in their respective parishes.

The disqualified aspirants are Hellen Akol Odeke, accused of not being a registered voter in Malera Parish; Norma Susan Okedi of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), accused of not being a registered voter in Kopeta Parish; and Mercy Marion Alupo of the National Unity Platform (NUP), accused of not being a registered voter in Kotolut Parish.

Nominations are scheduled for October 22-23, 2025.