President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is in Luweero later today as he moves to boost the NRM Camp ahead of Thursday’s by-election when the district will be voting for a woman representative in parliament.
As part of the campaign, President Museveni will address a rally at Wobulenzi town council before moving to Luweero town. He is accompanying the NRM Flag bearer in the race, Balwana Rebecca Nalwanga who is tussling out with DPs Brenda Nabukenya. Also in the race are independents Ramla Kadala and Faridah Namubiru.
However, Luwero residents believe that President Museveni’s visit may be of less impact to the NRM camp. Many of them claim that they lost touch with NRM after it failed to fulfill a series of promises to the people of Luwero who guided its journey to power during the Luweero guerilla war of 1981-86.
They claim that as a result of the promises, Nalwanga is as an underdog with fewer spectators at her rallies across the district since the start of the campaign on May 8th. Her closest contender Brenda Nabukenya has on the other hand been attracting larger crowds.
One NRM councilor who preferred anonymity observed that marketing the NRM candidate Rebecca Nalwanga to the electorate was such a big task. She says many places they visited were hostile and rather than being welcomed, they were booed by disgruntled members of the community chatting “Twakoowa” a common slang used to express tiredness.
Such sentiments were also aired by Mande Geoffrey a voter and resident of Kanyogoga village in Luweero and James Kikabi a voter in Luweero town council.
But Luweero district chairperson and NRM vice chairperson for Central region Hajji Abdul Naduli is optimistic that the NRM camp is strong that will win the polls by over 70%.
He says the 2011 by-election loss was precipitated by the inflation rate which hit the highest rate at the time and the low voter turn up. He says that the NRM has since controlled the inflation and has now concentrated on wooing voters to turn up in large numbers on polling day.
The By-Election in Luwero is to fill the Woman MP seat which fell vacant after the appellate Court ruled on that the process which took the Incumbent MP Brenda Nabukenya to parliament was not conducted in accordance with the law.
In the ruling, Court emphasized that the Electoral Commission didn’t comply with electoral laws when in November 2011 Nabukenya’s political rival Rebecca Nalwanga sought a mandatory vote recount from another by election.