Juma Gala Matata has retained the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC) Yumbe district chairperson seat after winning the controversial re-election.

Matata, who obtained 31 votes, beat his only competitor, Ashiraf Ayisuga, who got 23 votes out of the total 54 votes. The election comes after the initial exercise was nullified over irregularities.

On Thursday, November 24, 2022, evening UMSC returning officer for Yumbe district Swali Geriga nullified the election results for the position of district chairperson following the total number of votes cast (65) surpassing the 59 voters present according to the register.

Fresh elections were later held two days later in which Matata emerged victorious.

Other contenders for the chairpersonship position stepped down shortly before the polls were conducted. These were Saidi Aniku and Noah Angudria who claimed that election irregularities were increasing and feared that, they would cause division among Muslims in the district.

"Election rigging is a threat to religion. Secondly, the guidelines set for the elections were not applied principally to every candidate. I, therefore, don't want to be part of the confusion," Aniku said.

According to the nullified results, Matata would have still emerged the victor with 27 votes, former Yumbe LC5 vice chairperson Saidi Aniku came in second with 18 votes, secondary school teacher and former chairperson for Dacha Muslim county Ashiraf Ayisuga came third with 12 votes and former directly elected councillor for Apo sub-county Angudria came last with one vote, while seven votes were invalid.

Call for peace

After declaring Matata the winner of the election, Geriga called for peace and urged the candidates to forgive each other over the election shortcomings to develop Islam in the district.

"We should unite and together develop Islam," he said.

Geriga further called on the Muslims in the district to support their newly elected leaders and cooperate with them to cause development.

West Nile region returning officer Sadad Salim lauded the candidates for showing high levels of maturity in the elections.

He said leaders are chosen by Allah and that it's only through people that they are revealed.

Candidates speak out

Ayisuga congratulated Matata and said he is open to contributing towards the development of Islam in the district.

He further thanked his supporters and the electoral body for the peaceful elections.

Yumbe district has a total population of over 900,000 of which over 700,000 are Muslims.