Shartis Musherure, the daughter to Foreign Affairs Minister, Sam Kutesa has rejected the Mawogola North constituency election in the NRM primaries after she was defeated by Sodo, President Museveni’s brother.
The NRM electoral commission on Wednesday evening declared Godfrey Aine Kaguta, a brother to President Museveni as the winner of the highly contested election after polling 17343 votes against Musherure’s 16104 votes whereas Salim Kisekka got 4274 votes.
However, speaking shortly after the election, Musherure said she was cheated and noted she has since petitioned the NRM electoral commission over the same.
“I have found the electoral process wanting in terms of transparency and fairness. I reject the outcome of these elections. We have not been defeated but cheated. The election was not free and fair and veered from a common and acceptable standard of fairness,” Musherure said.
Kutesa’s daughter explained that there are six villages where she got no vote whereas her opponent combed all votes and this, she noted is not possible in a free and fair election.
“I will be submitting my petition covering six villages where I have major concerns and seeking the NRM electoral commission’s new judgment on these elections. In Kikoma we got 345 votes but Dr. Tanga Odoi came back and nullified the vote. He asked for a fresh vote when out people had already left. The same happened in many other villages,” she said.
“It is impossible to not have at least some number of voters. A zero vote means we didn’t vote and we need to know why. I have written the petition to his office and will seek his judgment on that.”
Musherure however assured her supporters that this is not the end of the journey and noted she would fight to the last man.
“Many times world over, we know that we know that we should pick up our pieces, fight on and live another day to serve our country. I remain a strong member of NRM and hope we can reform our party but if we don’t, it will lose its face which are its people,” Musherure noted.
Asked on whether she is considering standing as an independent in the forthcoming general elections, Kutesa’s daughter said it too early to predict.
“I will let you know what my decision is on that. I wouldn’t like to say anything about it right now,” she said.
The election which was supposed to be held on September 4, was postponed twice over ugly scenes of violence between supporters of both Godfrey Aine Kaguta and Shartis Kutesa Musherure who are both close to the First family.
To prevent any occurrence of the same, top security officials met on Monday to discuss ways of ensuring the election is peaceful.
Consequently, the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Maj.Gen.Muzeeyi Sabiiti and the CID Director, AIGP Grace Akullo camped in the area to oversee security.