Butaleja By-election: Florence Nebanda Wins By A Landslide
Florence Andiru Nebanda of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) on Monday won the Butaleja Woman MP seat by a landslide defeating four other candidates.
The defeated candidates include; Felistas Namwihiri for the FDC, Betty Hamba, Sarah Annet Logose, and Munaba Perusi who contested the poll as independent candidates.
The Butaleja seat fell vacant following the death of Cerinah Nebanda in December last year under unclear circumstances. Cerinah was the younger sister to Florence.
In her declaration at 11:15pm on Monday evening, Mabel Wakabi, the Butaleja District Electoral Commission Registrar announced that Andiru Nebanda scored a total of 27, 338 votes against her closet rival Betty Hamba, an independent who got 12, 157 votes.
Sarah Annet Logose, an independent, was third with 3, 393 votes while FDC’s Felistas Namwihiri got 3, 262 and Munabi Perusi, who contested as an independent tailed with 1, 332 votes. Perusi is former deputy mayor of Makindye Division in Kampala.
Wakabi announced that a total of 48, 684 ballot papers were counted with 47, 482 as valid vote cast for candidates, 1, 202 invalid votes and 31 spoilt ballot papers.
The election registered very poor turn up of voters with almost half of the 92, 242 registered voters in the 151 polling stations in Butaleja district failing to vote for yet unknown reasons.
The declaration of NRM candidate as a winner in the by-election threw a section of the party supporters who gathered and waited for the outcome of the results at the tally centre at the Butaleja district health boardroom into wild celebration.
Some of who among them was Alice Namulwa, Andiru’s mother who could not hide her excitement. She commended the voters for sympathizing with them upon the death of late Cerinah Nebanda by repaying them with the landslide victory of Florence Andiru Nebanda.
She said the biggest task that lies ahead of the family members is to put Andiru to task to ensure she completes the projects that late Nebanda left uncompleted and initiate more development projects for the people of Butaleja.
Only Sarah Annet Logose, among the five candidates was present at the time the results were announced. Logose was however not willing to talk to the press about the results of the election saying that she needs time.
However on Saturday in their press conference at Clyde Hotel in Butaleja, three candidates including Logose threatened to challenge the outcome of the election should it not favor them. The two others are Betty Hamba and FDC’s Felistas Namwihiri who all claim there was a lot of election malpractices that the Electoral Commission and the police failed to address at the beginning of the election processes.
They cited intimidation, harassment and assault on them and their supporters by the NRM supporters and the heavy deployment of the police among others which they claimed intimidated voters to stay away from voting.
It is however not clear whether or not they will revise their decision on the outcome of the results.
The electoral commission has however described the by-election as was free and fair.
Andiru will now replace her sister late Cerinah Nebanda who died suddenly on December 14th last year rendering the seat vacant. Andiru is among the few NRM candidates that have succeeded in the several by-election held since the 2011 general elections.
Florence will now have the task of proving to Ugandans and the people of Butaleja that she can ably fit in the huge shoes left by her sister. Before her demise, Cerinah had been viewed by many political pundits as the political hope of this nation because of her ability to challenge the status quo.
I HOPE YOU DO NOT GO THE SAME WAY LIKE YOUR SISTER
You mean you hope she does. Some of you Ugandans are so shallow and plain-minded.
congs Nebanda then start from where your hero sister stopped from from FDC wake up you need to pull up your sks
congs to Nebanda and the whole people of butaleja for the wise voting.
Hope she doesn’t literally follow her sister ……
This is sickening, really sad.
You think you could by a rope and do the world favour – a yourself too, of course.
Best of luck. You have to note that both yourself and your late sister joined politics at young age. Be careful girl, and take your time to learn how things are done. Many out there may want to take advantage of you because they know you don’t have experience.
You don’t have to adopt Cerinah’s tone and approach to things. You can determine your own posture, as long as you are doing the right thing – I know many out there will be teasing you to be like your sister, that could be a starting point at influencing you or misleading you??? Just be yourself and serve your people. Congratulations Florence.
NB: Take interest in the murder case of your sister and follow it to its logical conclusion
Composure and originality is what I can add onto my dear friend’s comment here for you Hon. Andiru Florence Nebanda. Continue the great legacy especially with the developments your late sister had initiated for the people of Butaleja and indeed cut out you’re own legacy in parliament. You don’t have to walk in your late sister’s exact shoes but to initiate and build on her principles of fighting corruption and also objectively opposing what doesn’t augur well with the people of Butaleja and Uganda as a whole. God Bless you
Money supersedes everything even murder
Wrong! wrong! wrong! on all levels! What a joke.
Congratulations now Hon, Andiru Nebanda. For the good of your people and for purposes of cohesiveness, I do request that you greatly embrace all your opponents and appreciate the fact that they stood by to give you a worthwhile victory. I also do applaud Ms. Betty Hamba for putting up such a spirited fight on an Independent ticket despite being the first appearance on the political platform. The late Cerinah Nebanda was a very proactive and social character who I personally drove at her victory party in Butaleja. Hon. Andiru, do extend your sisters legacy with dignity and honour. Butaleja needs focused driven and hard working leaders like the late Cerinah Nebanda. I also give kudos to Mr. Alfred Higenyi for the maturity he has held the results of this election being a driving factor in the growth and future of Butaleja.