Contestants in the NRM primaries in the Bukoto South parliamentary by elections are protesting the approval of Alintuma Nsambu, the former ICT State Minister by the party commission to contest in the elections. On Tuesday, the NRM secretariat approved Nsambu to contest the Bukoto South parliamentary by election after switching from Bukoto East.
But the decision by the party secretariat to allow Nsambu to contest in the Bukoto South primary elections scheduled for Friday has drawn angry reactions for five other contestants. They are Achilles Lubega, David Mukasa, Robert Rutalo, Joseph Ssebayiki and Dr. Herbert Lwanga. They accuse Prof. Elijah Mushemeza, the Chairperson of NRM’s electoral Commission of pocketing huge bribes from Nsambu to okay his decision to participate in the primary elections.
But Rutalo and Lubega claim that they have evidence showing that Mushemeza and members of his team received bribes from Nsambu at Hotel Brovad. Rutalo, a former Makerere University guild president says because of the massive bribery they don’t expect free and fair primary elections.
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Achilles Lubega, another aspirant alleges that Nsambu has bribed all the NRM leaders in Lwengo district to rig the Friday primaries in his favor. He claims that he has photographs showing Nsambu giving money to Joy Walusimbi, the speaker of Lwengo district council, his wife Teopista Mbabazi and Eddie Sansa, the defeated Bukoto Midwest candidate to rig the NRM primaries.
Lubega, who represented Muyanja Mbabaali, the former area MP who was thrown out by court says the NRM secretariat does not investigate all the irregularities before Friday; he will pull out and contest as an independent.
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David Mukasa wants President Museveni to institute a probe to investigate the NRM Electoral commission for corruption. Mukasa says that most of his voters have already been bribed which is likely to affect the outcome of the polls. But Alintuma Nsambu has dismissed the allegations, and challenged his rivals to use the evidence against him to file charges in court.
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Prof. Elijah Mushemeza, the Chairperson of NRM Electoral commission has asked the complainants to write to him officially instead of rumor-mongering to the media.
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Bukoto South Seat fell vacant after the high court disqualified MP Muyanja Mbabaali for lack of required academic qualifications.
