Sheema south voters petition Museveni
Nov 17, 2010
OVER 700 voters in Sheema South county have petitioned President Yoweri Museveni over the way the NRM party electoral commission boss, Prof. Elijah Mushemeza, handled primaries in their constituency.
By Conan Businge
and Fred Turyakira
OVER 700 voters in Sheema South county have petitioned President Yoweri Museveni over the way the NRM party electoral commission boss, Prof. Elijah Mushemeza, handled primaries in their constituency.
The petitioners from Sheema district, in a letter to Museveni, who is also the party’s national chairman, said the right NRM flag-bearer was Prof. Ephraim Kamuntu, and not Yorokamu Katwiremu.
High Court blocked Katwiremu’s nomination as party flag-bearer. The petitioners have threatened that if Kamuntu is not declared winner, he could contest as an independent candidate.
National nominations for MPs will take place on November 25 and 26.
The petitioners also argued that the reconciliation commission set up to resolve the electoral complaints did not look into the Sheema South issues.
Kamuntu, the Trade and Industry state minister, who is also the incumbent MP for Sheema South, admitted meeting the NRM reconciliation team led by Al-Hajj Moses Kigongo.
According to the Sheema district NRM registrar, Joel Mugisha, the results were contested and another team revisited the documentation and declared Kamuntu winner.
However, NRM official reports of flag-bearers still consider Katwiremu as the winner.
Mugisha recommended that declaration forms be revisited by a neutral team. He also wanted the registrars, who allegedly mishandled the voting, to be probed.
Kamuntu claimed that Mushemeza could not give him a fair hearing since he had contested against him before.
But Mushemeza said he had no time to campaign for Katwiremu because at the time he was busy seeking votes for the party’s secretary general seat.
“The party will support Katwiremu as a flag-bearer even if Kamuntu goes to court. We shall defeat him in court because we have facts,†he said.
and Fred Turyakira
OVER 700 voters in Sheema South county have petitioned President Yoweri Museveni over the way the NRM party electoral commission boss, Prof. Elijah Mushemeza, handled primaries in their constituency.
The petitioners from Sheema district, in a letter to Museveni, who is also the party’s national chairman, said the right NRM flag-bearer was Prof. Ephraim Kamuntu, and not Yorokamu Katwiremu.
High Court blocked Katwiremu’s nomination as party flag-bearer. The petitioners have threatened that if Kamuntu is not declared winner, he could contest as an independent candidate.
National nominations for MPs will take place on November 25 and 26.
The petitioners also argued that the reconciliation commission set up to resolve the electoral complaints did not look into the Sheema South issues.
Kamuntu, the Trade and Industry state minister, who is also the incumbent MP for Sheema South, admitted meeting the NRM reconciliation team led by Al-Hajj Moses Kigongo.
According to the Sheema district NRM registrar, Joel Mugisha, the results were contested and another team revisited the documentation and declared Kamuntu winner.
However, NRM official reports of flag-bearers still consider Katwiremu as the winner.
Mugisha recommended that declaration forms be revisited by a neutral team. He also wanted the registrars, who allegedly mishandled the voting, to be probed.
Kamuntu claimed that Mushemeza could not give him a fair hearing since he had contested against him before.
But Mushemeza said he had no time to campaign for Katwiremu because at the time he was busy seeking votes for the party’s secretary general seat.
“The party will support Katwiremu as a flag-bearer even if Kamuntu goes to court. We shall defeat him in court because we have facts,†he said.